Finding at Least One Point in Each Connected Component of a Real Algebraic Set Defined by a Single Equation

AbstractDeciding efficiently the emptiness of a real algebraic set defined by a single equation is a fundamental problem of computational real algebraic geometry. We propose an algorithm for this test. We find, when the algebraic set is non empty, at least one point on each semi-algebraically connected component. The problem is reduced to deciding the existence of real critical points of the distance function and computing them