Tame topology and O-minimal structures

L. P. D. van den Dries0521598389, 9780521598385

Following their introduction in the early 1980s, o-minimal structures have provided an elegant and surprisingly efficient generalization of semialgebraic and subanalytic geometry. This book gives a self-contained treatment of the theory of o-minimal structures from a geometric and topological viewpoint, assuming only rudimentary algebra and analysis. It starts with an introduction and overview of the subject. Later chapters cover the monotonicity theorem, cell decomposition, and the Euler characteristic in the o-minimal setting and show how these notions are easier to handle than in ordinary topology. The remarkable combinatorial property of o-minimal structures, the Vapnik-Chervonenkis property, is also covered. This book should be of interest to model theorists, analytic geometers and topologists.