Flattening and Subanalytic Sets in Rigid Analytic Geometry

Let K be an algebraically closed field endowed with a completenon-archimedean norm with valuation ring R. Let f: Y X be amap of K-affinoid varieties. In this paper we study the analyticstructure of the image f(Y) X; such an image is a typical exampleof a subanalytic set. We show that the subanalytic sets areprecisely the D-semianalytic sets, where D is the truncateddivision function first introduced by Denef and van den Dries.This result is most conveniently stated as a Quantifier Eliminationresult for the valuation ring R in an analytic expansion ofthe language of valued rings. To prove this we establish a Flattening Theorem for affinoidvarieties in the style of Hironaka, which allows a reductionto the study of subanalytic sets arising from flat maps, thatis, we show that a map of affinoid varieties can be renderedflat by using only finitely many local blowing ups. The caseof a flat map is then dealt with by a small extension of a resultof Raynaud and Gruson showing that the image of a flat map ofaffinoid varieties is open in the Grothendieck topology. Using Embedded Resolution of Singularities, we derive in thezero characteristic case, a Uniformization Theorem for subanalyticsets: a subanalytic set can be rendered semianalytic using onlyfinitely many local blowing ups with smooth centres. As a corollarywe obtain the fact that any subanalytic set in the plane R2is semianalytic. 2000 Mathematical Subject Classification: 32P05,32B20, 13C11, 12J25, 03C10.