The algorithmic problems of real algebraic geometry such as real root counting, deciding the existence of solutions of systems of polynomial equations and inequalities, finding global maxima or deciding whether two points belong in the same connected component of a semi-algebraic set appear frequently in many areas of science and engineering. In this textbook the main ideas and techniques presented form a coherent and rich body of knowledge.

Mathematicians will find relevant information about the algorithmic aspects. Researchers in computer science and engineering will find the...

While we were busy putting together the present collection of articles celebrating the twentieth birthday of our journal, Discrete & Computational Geometry, and, in a way, of the ?eld that has become known under the same name, two more years have elapsed. There is no doubt that DCG has crossed the line between childhood and adulthood. By the mid-1980s it became evident that the solution of many algorithmic qu- tions in the then newly emerging ?eld of computational geometry required classical methodsandresultsfromdiscreteandcombinatorialgeometry. Forinstance, visibility and ray shooting...