On polynomial images of a closed ball (Q6046476)

The authors characterize semialgebraic subsets of \(\mathbb R^n\) that are the image of a real morphism (i.e. real polynomial map) of a closed unit ball \(\mathbb R^m\). In particular, they proved: If \(S\subset \mathbb R^n\) is a finite union of \(n\)-dimensional compact and convex polyhedra then the following are equivalent \begin{itemize} \item \(S\) is connected by real analytic paths \item There is a real morphism \(f:\mathbb R^{n+1} \to \mathbb R^n\) such that \(f(B_{n+1})= S\) \item There is a real morphism \(f:\mathbb R^n \to \mathbb R^n\) such that \(f(B_n)= S\) \end{itemize} where \(B_k\subset \mathbb R^k\) is a closed unit ball in the Euclidean topology. This is a special case of their main result, where \(S\) above can be replaced with a finite union of \textit{\(m\)-bricks} and the morphism is \(f:\mathbb R^{m+1}\to \mathbb R^n\). An \textit{\(m\)-brick} is a set \(T\subset \mathbb R^n\) such that there is a homotopy \[H_\lambda :B_m \to T \quad \lambda \in [0,1]\] that deforms \(H_0(B_m)=T\) to a point \(H_1(B_m)\) and has intermediate images contained in the Euclidean interior of \(T\). The authors also pose an open problem asking the minimum degrees of such polynomial maps.