Bounding the radii of balls meeting every connected component of semi-algebraic sets

We prove an explicit bound on the radius of a ball centered at the origin which is guaranteed to contain all bounded connected components of a semi-algebraic set S⊂R^k$S\subset {\mathbb{R}}^k$ defined by a weak sign condition involving s$s$ polynomials in Z_X1,…,_Xk]$\mathbb{Z}{X}_1,\dots ,X_k]$ having degrees at most d$d$, and whose coefficients have bitsizes at most τ$\tau$. Our bound is an explicit function of s,d,k$s,d,k$ and τ$\tau$, and does not contain any undetermined constants. We also prove a similar bound on the radius of a ball guaranteed to intersect every connected component of S$S$ (including the unbounded components). While asymptotic bounds of the form 2^τdO(k)$2^{\tau d^{O\left(k\right)}}$ on these quantities were known before, some applications require bounds which are explicit and which hold for all values of s,d,k$s,d,k$ and τ$\tau$. The bounds proved in this paper are of this nature.