Tarski–Seidenberg theorem

In mathematics, the Tarski–Seidenberg theorem states that a set in (n + 1)-dimensional space defined by polynomial equations and inequalities can be projected down onto n-dimensional space, and the resulting set is still definable in terms of polynomial identities and inequalities. The theorem—also known as the Tarski–Seidenberg projection property—is named after Alfred Tarski and Abraham Seidenberg. It implies that quantifier elimination is possible over the reals, that is that every formula constructed from polynomial equations and inequalities by logical connectives ∨ (or), ∧ (and), ¬ (not) and quantifiers ∀ (for all), ∃ (exists) is equivalent to a similar formula without quantifiers. An important consequence is the decidability of the theory of real-closed fields.

Although the original proof of the theorem was constructive, the resulting algorithm has a computational complexity that is too high for using the method on a computer. George E. Collins introduced the algorithm of cylindrical algebraic decomposition, which allows quantifier elimination over the reals in double exponential time. This complexity is optimal, as there are examples where the output has a double exponential number of connected components. This algorithm is therefore fundamental, and it is widely used in computational algebraic geometry.