| Introduction | p. 1 |
| Algebraically Closed Fields | p. 9 |
| Definitions and First Properties | p. 9 |
| Euclidean Division and Greatest Common Divisor | p. 12 |
| Projection Theorem for Constructible Sets | p. 16 |
| Quantifier Elimination and the Transfer Principle | p. 22 |
| Bibliographical Notes | p. 24 |
| Real Closed Fields | p. 25 |
| Definitions and First Properties | p. 25 |
| Real Root Counting | p. 37 |
| Descartes's Law of Signs and the Budan-Fourier Theorem | p. 37 |
| The Cauchy Index | p. 43 |
| Sign Determination | p. 50 |
| Projection Theorem for Semi-Algebraic Sets | p. 54 |
| Applications | p. 60 |
| Quantifier Elimination and the Transfer Principle | p. 60 |
| Semi-Algebraic Functions | p. 62 |
| Extension of Semi-Algebraic Sets and Functions | p. 63 |
| Puiseux Series | p. 64 |
| Bibliographical Notes | p. 72 |
| Semi-Algebraic Sets | p. 73 |
| Topology | p. 73 |
| Semi-algebraically Connected Sets | p. 76 |
| Semi-algebraic Germs | p. 77 |
| Closed and Bounded Semi-algebraic Sets | p. 82 |
| Implicit Function Theorem | p. 83 |
| Bibliographical Notes | p. 89 |
| Algebra | p. 91 |
| Quadratic Forms and Root Counting | p. 91 |
| Quadratic Forms | p. 91 |
| Hermite's Quadratic Form and the Discriminant | p. 96 |
| Resultant and Subresultant Coefficients | p. 103 |
| Hilbert's Nullstellensatz | p. 111 |
| Zero-dimensional Systems | p. 121 |
| Multivariate Hermite's Quadratic Form | p. 127 |
| Projective Space and a Weak Bézout's Theorem | p. 131 |
| Bibliographical Notes | p. 136 |
| Decomposition of Semi-Algebraic Sets | p. 137 |
| Cylindrical Decomposition | p. 137 |
| Semi-algebraically Connected Components | p. 147 |
| Dimension | p. 148 |
| Semi-algebraic Description of Cells | p. 150 |
| Stratification | p. 152 |
| Simplicial Complexes | p. 158 |
| Triangulation | p. 160 |
| Hardt's Triviality Theorem and Consequences | p. 164 |
| Semi-algebraic Sard's Theorem | p. 169 |
| Bibliographical Notes | p. 172 |
| Elements of Topology | p. 173 |
| Simplicial Homology Theory | p. 173 |
| The Homology Groups of a Simplicial Complex | p. 173 |
| The Mayer-Vietoris Theorem | p. 177 |
| Chain Homotopy | p. 179 |
| The Simplicial Homology Groups Are Invariant Under Homeomorphism | p. 182 |
| Simplicial Homology of Closed and Bounded Semi-algebraic Sets | p. 190 |
| Definitions and First Properties | p. 190 |
| Homotopy | p. 193 |
| Homology Groups of Closed Semi-algebraic Sets and of Sign Conditions | p. 195 |
| Euler-Poincaré Characteristic | p. 197 |
| Bibliographical Notes | p. 200 |
| Quantitative Semi-algebraic Geometry | p. 201 |
| Morse Theory | p. 201 |
| Sum of the Betti Numbers of Real Algebraic Sets | p. 220 |
| Bounding the Betti Numbers of Realizations of Sign Conditions | p. 228 |
| Sum of the Betti Numbers of Closed Semi-algebraic Sets | p. 235 |
| Bibliographical Notes | p. 239 |
| Complexity of Basic Algorithms | p. 241 |
| Definition of Complexity | p. 241 |
| Linear Algebra | p. 252 |
| Size of Determinants | p. 252 |
| Evaluation of Determinants | p. 254 |
| Characteristic Polynomial | p. 259 |
| Signature of Quadratic Forms | p. 262 |
| Remainder Sequences and Subresultants | p. 263 |
| Remainder Sequences | p. 263 |
| Signed Subresultant Polynomials | p. 265 |
| Size of Remainders and Subresultants | p. 276 |
| Subresultant Computation | p. 279 |
| Bibliographical Notes | p. 282 |
| Cauchy Index and Applications | p. 283 |
| Cauchy Index | p. 283 |
| Signed Remainder Sequence and Cauchy Index | p. 283 |
| Signed Subresultant Coefficients and Cauchy Index | p. 284 |
| Bezoutian and Cauchy Index | p. 290 |
| Cauchy Index Computation | p. 297 |
| Signed Subresultant Sequence and Cauchy Index on an Interval | p. 298 |
| Hankel Matrices | p. 301 |
| Hankel Matrices and Rational Functions | p. 302 |
| Signature of Hankel Quadratic Forms | p. 305 |
| Number of Complex Roots with Negative Real Part | p. 313 |
| Bibliographical Notes | p. 319 |
| Real Roots | p. 321 |
| Bounds on Roots | p. 321 |
| Isolating Real Roots | p. 329 |
| Sign Determination | p. 346 |
| Roots in a Real Closed Field | p. 358 |
| Bibliographical Notes | p. 363 |
| Polynomial System Solving | p. 365 |
| A Few Results on Gröbner Bases | p. 365 |
| Multiplication Tables | p. 372 |
| Special Multiplication Table | p. 375 |
| Univariate Representation | p. 382 |
| Limits of the Solutions ofa Polynomial System | p. 389 |
| Finding Points in Connected Components of Algebraic Sets | p. 402 |
| Computing the Euler-Poincaré Characteristic of an Algebraic Set | p. 414 |
| Bibliographical Notes | p. 419 |
| Cylindrical Decomposition Algorithm | p. 421 |
| Computing the Cylindrical Decomposition | p. 422 |
| Outline of the Method | p. 422 |
| Details of the Lifting Phase | p. 428 |
| Decision Problem | p. 435 |
| Quantifier Elimination | p. 443 |
| Computation of Stratifying Families | p. 447 |
| Topology of Curves | p. 449 |
| Restricted Elimination | p. 459 |
| Bibliographical Notes | p. 463 |
| Existential Theory of the Reals | p. 465 |
| Finding Realizable Sign Conditions | p. 466 |
| A Few Applications | p. 476 |
| Sample Points on an Algebraic Set | p. 479 |
| Computing the Euler-Poincaré Characteristic of Sign Conditions | p. 488 |
| Bibliographical Notes | p. 492 |
| Quantifier Elimination | p. 493 |
| Algorithm for the General Decision Problem | p. 494 |
| Quantifier Elimination | p. 507 |
| Local Quantifier Elimination | p. 512 |
| Dimension and Closure Semi-algebraic Sets | p. 517 |
| Bibliographical Notes | p. 521 |
| Computing Roadmaps and Connected Components of Algebraic Sets | p. 523 |
| Pseudo-critical Values and Connectedness | p. 524 |
| Roadmap of an Algebraic Set | p. 526 |
| Computing Connected Components of Algebraic Sets | p. 538 |
| Bibliographical Notes | p. 547 |
| Computing Roadmaps and Connected Components of Semi-algebraic Sets | p. 549 |
| Special Values | p. 549 |
| Uniform Roadmaps | p. 557 |
| Computing Connected Components of Sign Conditions | p. 564 |
| Computing Connected Components of a Semi-algebraic Set | p. 570 |
| Roadmap Algorithm | p. 574 |
| Bibliographical Notes | p. 584 |
| References | p. 587 |
| Index | p. 595 |
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