On the number of homotopy types of fibres of a definable map

In this paper we prove a single exponential upper bound on thenumber of possible homotopy types of the fibres of a Pfaffianmap in terms of the format of its graph. In particular, we showthat if a semi-algebraic set SR^m+n, where R is a real closedfield, is defined by a Boolean formula with s polynomials ofdegree less than d, and : R^m+nRⁿ is the projection on a subspace,then the number of different homotopy types of fibres of doesnot exceed s^2(m+1)n(2^m nd)^O(nm). As applications of our mainresults we prove single exponential bounds on the number ofhomotopy types of semi-algebraic sets defined by fewnomials,and by polynomials with bounded additive complexity. We alsoprove single exponential upper bounds on the radii of ballsguaranteeing local contractibility for semi-algebraic sets definedby polynomials with integer coefficients.