Much in the same way as classical algebraic varieties are generalized by the theory of schemes, locally semi-algebraic spaces are generalized by a class of locally ringed spaces, called real closed spaces. The underlying spaces of affine real closed spaces are real spectra of rings, the structure sheaves are called real closed sheaves. With these spaces a theory can be developed which is very similar to the theory of schemes. There is a natural functor from the category of semi-algebraic spaces to the category of real closed spaces. Via this functor properties of semi-algebraic spaces and their corresponding real closed spaces can be compared.

The model theory of fields is a fascinating subject stretching from Tarski's work on the decidability of the theories of the real and complex fields to Hrushovksi's recent proof of the Mordell-Lang conjecture for function fields. This volume provides an insightful introduction to this active area, concentrating on connections to stability theory.

Ten years after the first Rennes international meeting on real algebraic geometry, the second one looked at the developments in the subject during the intervening decade - see the 6 survey papers listed below. Further contributions from the participants on recent research covered real algebra and geometry, topology of real algebraic varieties and 16thHilbert problem, classical algebraic geometry, techniques in real algebraic geometry, algorithms in real algebraic geometry, semialgebraic geometry, real analytic geometry. CONTENTS: Survey papers: M. Knebusch: Semialgebraic topology in the last ten years.- R. Parimala: Algebraic and topological invariants of real algebraic varieties.- Polotovskii, G.M.: On the classification of decomposing plane algebraic curves.- Scheiderer, C.: Real algebra and its applications to geometry in the last ten years: some major developments and results.- Shustin, E.L.: Topology of real plane algebraic curves.- Silhol, R.: Moduli problems in real algebraic geometry. Further contributions by: S. Akbulut and H. King; C. Andradas and J. Ruiz; A. Borobia; L. Br|cker; G.W. Brumfield; A. Castilla; Z. Charzynski and P. Skibinski; M. Coste and M. Reguiat; A. Degtyarev; Z. Denkowska; J.-P. Francoise and F. Ronga; J.M. Gamboa and C. Ueno; D. Gondard- Cozette; I.V. Itenberg; P. Jaworski; A. Korchagin; T. Krasinksi and S. Spodzieja; K. Kurdyka; H. Lombardi; M. Marshall and L. Walter; V.F. Mazurovskii; G. Mikhalkin; T. Mostowski and E. Rannou; E.I. Shustin; N. Vorobjov.

Dieses Buch will dem Leser eine Einführung in wichtige Techniken und Methoden der heutigen reellen Algebra und Geometrie vermitteln. An Voraussetzungen werden dabei nur Grundkenntnisse der Algebra erwartet, so daß das Buch für Studenten mittlerer Semester geeignet ist.Das erste Kapitel enthält zunächst grundlegende Fakten über angeordnete Körper und ihre reellen Abschlüsse und behandelt dann verschiedene Methoden zur Bestimmung der Anzahl reeller Nullstellen von Polynomen. Das zweite Kapitel befaßt sich mit reellen Stellen und gipfelt in Artins Lösung des 17. Hilbertschen Problems. Kapitel III schließlich ist dem noch jungen Begriff des reellen Spektrums und seinen Anwendungen gewidmet."Neben dem 1987 erschienenen "Géometrie algébrique réelle" von J. Bochnak-M. Coste- M. Roy stellt die vorliegende Monographie das erste Lehrbuch auf diesem Gebiet dar... Damit liegt eine sehr empfehlenswerte Einführung...vor..." (H. Mitsch, Monatshefte für Mathematik 3/111, 1991)

Locally semialgebraic spaces serve as an appropriate framework for studying the topological properties of varieties and semialgebraic sets over a real closed field. This book contributes to the fundamental theory of semialgebraic topology and falls into two main parts. The first dealswith sheaves and their cohomology on spaces which locally look like a constructible subset of a real spectrum. Topics like families of support, homotopy, acyclic sheaves, base-change theorems and cohomological dimension are considered. In the second part a homology theory for locally complete locally semialgebraic spaces over a real closed field is developed, the semialgebraic analogue of classical Bore-Moore-homology. Topics include fundamental classes of manifolds and varieties, Poincare duality, extensions of the base field and a comparison with the classical theory. Applying semialgebraic Borel-Moore-homology, a semialgebraic ("topological") approach to intersection theory on varieties over an algebraically closed field of characteristic zero is given. The book is addressed to researchers and advanced students in real algebraic geometry and related areas.

The book lays algebraic foundations for real geometry through a systematic investigation of partially ordered rings of semi-algebraic functions. Real spectra serve as primary geometric objects, the maps between them are determined by rings of functions associated with the spectra. The many different possible choices for these rings of functions are studied via reflections of partially ordered rings. Readers should feel comfortable using basic algebraic and categorical concepts. As motivational background some familiarity with real geometry will be helpful. The book aims at researchers and graduate students with an interest in real algebra and geometry, ordered algebraic structures, topology and rings of continuous functions.

The papers collected here present an up-to-date record of the current research developments in the fields of real algebraic geometry and quadratic forms. Articles range from the technical to the expository and there are also indications to new research directions.

For a long time - at least from Fermat to Minkowski - the theory of quadratic forms was a part of number theory. Much of the best work of the great number theorists of the eighteenth and nineteenth century was concerned with problems about quadratic forms. On the basis of their work, Minkowski, Siegel, Hasse, Eichler and many others crea ted the impressive "arithmetic" theory of quadratic forms, which has been the object of the well-known books by Bachmann (1898/1923), Eichler (1952), and O'Meara (1963). Parallel to this development the ideas of abstract algebra and abstract linear algebra introduced by Dedekind, Frobenius, E. Noether and Artin led to today's structural mathematics with its emphasis on classification problems and general structure theorems. On the basis of both - the number theory of quadratic forms and the ideas of modern algebra - Witt opened, in 1937, a new chapter in the theory of quadratic forms. His most fruitful idea was to consider not single "individual" quadratic forms but rather the entity of all forms over a fixed ground field and to construct from this an algebra ic object. This object - the Witt ring - then became the principal object of the entire theory. Thirty years later Pfister demonstrated the significance of this approach by his celebrated structure theorems.

This book presents a systematic and unified report on the minimal description of constructible sets. It starts at a very basic level (almost undergraduate) and leads up to state-of-the-art results, many of which are published in book form for the very first time. The book contains numerous examples, 63 figures and each chapter ends with a section containing historical notes. The authors tried to keep the presentation as self-contained as it can possibly be.