Topics in global real analytic geometry

Abstract

In the first half of twentieth century the theory of complex analytic functions and of their zerosets was fully developed. The definition of holomorphic function has a local nature. Germs of holomorphic functions form a distinguished subring of the ring of germs of continuous functions. This way came out the notion of analytic space. The definition of a complex analytic set is by local models as in the case of complex manifolds. But while local models for manifolds are open sets of ${\mathbb C}^n$, a local model of an analytic space is the zeroset of finitely many analytic functions on an open set of ${\mathbb C}^n$ together with a sheaf of continuous function to be called holomorphic. Towards the years $50$ of the last century, Cartan, Whitney, Bruhat and others tried to formulate the notion of analytic space over ${\mathbb R}$. Immediately they realize that the real sets verifying a definition similar to the complex one form a cathegory whose elements can get unpleasant behaviour. In particular this cathegory does not get the good properties of complex analytic spaces, as for instance coherence of their structural sheaves and Theorems A and B do not hold in general.