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I'm writing a formal math text, a long expository paper (i.e. a short book). The text is divided in sections and subsections (no chapters).

In order to present the subsection X.Y (here X and Y are two natural numbers) I need to include a very general theory $\mathcal T$ which is very far from the purpose of my text. There are basically two ways to write $\mathcal T$.

  1. (I don't like this one). It consists in writing the subsection X.(Y-1) which contains only $\mathcal T$. This would interrupt the harmony of the text because this subsection would include a piece of information appearing out of the blue. I hate when in books I see sentences like "In the following 100 pages I'll do this construction because it will be useful very soon".
  2. Another reasonable choice could be an appendix (at the end of the text) containing $\mathcal T$. But also here there is an issue in my opinion: the subsection X.Y then will rely entirely on the appendix. So, the reader would be in the strange situation where he is obliged to read the appendix, in order to go through the rest of the text. This is not very common among math books, because usually appendices are not part of the main structure of the text.

What would you do in my position?

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    On which topic or field will it be? – 2017-02-03
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    The main topic is algebraic geometry, $\mathcal T$ is a purely topological construction. – 2017-02-03
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    Depends on your readership. If the majority is expert in ${\cal T}$, put it in the appendix: that way, you keep the flow for the majority, yet enable the minority to fill the gap they need to continue to X.Y. If most of your readers are not expected to know ${\cal T}$, I would choose option 1. If ${\cal T}$ appears "out of the blue", that's an issue with the exposure: find a way to usher the reader into it softly. – 2017-02-03

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