Over the field of real numbers, analytic geometry has long been in deep
interaction with algebraic geometry, bringing the latter subject many of
its topological insights. In recent decades, model theory has joined
this work through the theory of o-minimality, providing finiteness and
uniformity statements and new structural tools.
For non-archimedean fields, such as the p-adics, the Berkovich
analytification provides a connected topology with many thoroughgoing
analogies to the real topology on the set of complex points, and it has
become an important tool in algebraic dynamics and many other areas of
geometry.
This book lays down model-theoretic foundations for non-archimedean
geometry. The methods combine o-minimality and stability theory.
Definable types play a central role, serving first to define the notion
of a point and then properties such as definable compactness.
Beyond the foundations, the main theorem constructs a deformation
retraction from the full non-archimedean space of an algebraic variety
to a rational polytope. This generalizes previous results of V.
Berkovich, who used resolution of singularities methods.
No previous knowledge of non-archimedean geometry is assumed.
Model-theoretic prerequisites are reviewed in the first sections.