We study the scheme of formal arcs on a singular algebraic variety and its images under truncations. We prove a rationality result for the Poincare series of these images which is an analogue of the rationality of the Poincare series associated to p-adic points on a p-adic variety. The main tools which are used are semi-algebraic geometry in spaces of power series and motivic integration (a notion introduced by M. Kontsevich). In particular we develop the theory of motivic integration for semi-algebraic sets of formal arcs on singular algebraic varieties, we prove a change of variable formula for birational morphisms and we prove a geometric analogue of a result of Oesterle.Comment: Revised Nov. 1997, to appear in Inventiones Mathematicae, 27 page

Abstract. This paper is a survey on arc spaces, a recent topic in algebraic geometry and singularity theory. The geometry of the arc space of an algebraic variety yields several new geometric invariants and brings new light to some classical invariants.

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