The number of connected components of zero sets of smooth Gaussian functions

We find the order of growth of the typical number of components of zero sets of smooth random functions of several real variables. This might be thought as a statistical version of the (first half of) 16th Hilbert problem. The primary examples are various ensembles of Gaussian real-valued polynomials (algebraic or trigonometric) of large degree, and smooth Gaussian functions on the Euclidean space with translation-invariant distribution.

Joint work with Fedor Nazarov.