Final version, to appear in "Contemporary Mathematics" volume (proceedings of Li60ber). 5 pages, uses curves.sty. A reference added. One typo corrected
Consider the germ of an isolated surface singularity in $(\mC^3,0)$. The corresponding Milnor fibre possesses the homology lattice (the integral middle homology with a natural symmetric intersection form). An old question of A.Durfee (1978) asks: is the signature of this form non-increasing under degenerations? The present article answers negatively: We give examples of Newton non-degenerate families where the signature increases under degeneration.
Let $ Φ: ({\mathbb C}^2, 0) \to ( {\mathbb C}^3, 0) $ be a finitely determined complex analytic germ and let $(\{f=0\},0)$ be the reduced equation of its image, a non-isolated hypersurface singularity. We provide the plumbing graph of the boundary of the Milnor fibre of $f$ from the double-point-geometry of $Φ$.
Given a nonconstant polynomial map over the reals having an isolated critical point in the origin and with zero locus of positive dimension, we establish a formula for the singular homology groups of a Milnor fibre relative to its boundary.
In this article we prove two results concerning the motivic Milnor fibres $S^ε(f)$ associated to a map germ $f: (\mathbb{R}^n,0)\to(\mathbb{R},0)$, defined by G. Comte and G. Fichou. Firstly, we prove that if $f,g:(\mathbb{R}^n,0)\to(\mathbb{R},0)$ are arc-analytically equivalent germs of Nash functions then the virtual Poincaré polynomial of the corresponding motivic Milnor fibres are equal. This extends (and provides a new proof) of a result of G. Fichou. Secondly, let $T\subset\mathbb{R}^m$ be a real algebraic set and $f: T\times(\mathbb{R}^n,0)\to\mathbb{R}$ a polynomial function of polyno…
This note is the observation that a simple combination of known results shows that the usual analytic invariants of a finitely determined multi-germ $f\colon (\mathbb{C}^2,S)\to(\mathbb{C}^3,0)$ ---namely the image Milnor number $μ_I$, the number of crosscaps and triple points, $C$ and $T$, and the Milnor number $μ(Σ)$ of the curve of double points in the target--- depend only on the embedded topological type of the image of $f$. As a consequence one obtains the topological invariance of the sign-refined Smale invariant for immersions $j\colon S^3\looparrowright S^5$ associated to finitely det…
Let $\mathcal{L}$ be the noncrossing partition lattice associated to a finite Coxeter group $W$. In this paper we construct explicit bases for the top homology groups of intervals and rank-selected subposets of $\mathcal{L}$. We define a multiplicative structure on the Whitney homology of $\mathcal{L}$ in terms of the basis, and the resulting algebra has similarities to the Orlik-Solomon algebra. As an application, we obtain four chain complexes which compute the integral homology of the Milnor fibre of the reflection arrangement of $W$, the Milnor fibre of the discriminant of $W$, the hyperpl…
Let $W$ be a finite Coxeter group. We give an algebraic presentation of what we refer to as ``the non-crossing algebra'', which is associated to the hyperplane complement of $W$ and to the cohomology of its Milnor fibre. This is used to produce simpler and more general chain (and cochain) complexes which compute the integral homology and cohomology groups of the Milnor fibre $F$ of $W$. In the process we define a new, larger algebra $\widetilde{A}$, which seems to be ``dual'' to the Fomin-Kirillov algebra, and in low ranks is linearly isomorphic to it. There is also a mysterious connection bet…
This article and its successor concern the topology of real isolated hypersurface singularities. We prove that after attaching a certain number of handles the real Milnor fibres become contractible, with each handle corresponding to a critical point of a morsification; in particular one recovers the classical formula of Khimshiashvili for the Euler characteristic of the Milnor fibres. We then give sufficient conditions for having that the integer homology groups of the real Milnor fibres are isomorphic to the homology groups of a bouquet of spheres. This is followed by a discussion on real van…
It is known (Stipsicz-Szabó-Wahl) that there are exactly three triply-infinite and seven singly-infinite families of weighted homogeneous normal surface singularities admitting a rational homology disk ($\mathbb{Q}$HD) smoothing, i.e., having a Milnor fibre with Milnor number zero. Some examples are found by an explicit "quotient construction", while others require the "Pinkham method". The fundamental group of the Milnor fibre has been known for all except the three exceptional families $\mathcal B_2^3(p), \mathcal C^3_2(p),$ and $\mathcal C^3_3(p)$. In this paper, we settle these cases. We p…
Khimshiashvili proved a topological degree formula for the Eu-ler characteristic of the Milnor fibres of a real function-germ with an isolated singularity. We give two generalizations of this result for non-isolated singularities. As corollaries we obtain an algebraic formula for the Euler characteristic of the fibres of a real weighted-homogeneous polynomial and a real version of the L{ê}-Iomdine formula. We have also included some results of the same flavor on the local topology of locally closed definable sets.
A cyclic quotient singularity of type $p^2/pq-1$ ($0<q<p, (p,q)=1$) has a smoothing whose Milnor fibre is a $\mathbb Q$HD, or rational homology disk (i.e., the Milnor number is $0$) ([9], 5.9.1). In the 1980's, we discovered additional examples of such singularities: three triply-infinite and six singly-infinite families, all weighted homogeneous. Later work of Stipsicz, Szabó, Bhupal, and the author ([7], [1]) proved that these were the only weighted homogeneous examples. In his UNC PhD thesis (unpublished but available at [2]), our student Jacob Fowler completed the analytic classification o…
The Milnor fibre of a $\mathbb{Q}$-Gorenstein smoothing of a Wahl singularity is a rational homology ball $B_{p,q}$. For a canonically polarised surface of general type $X$, it is known that there are bounds on the number $p$ for which $B_{p,q}$ admits a symplectic embedding into $X$. In this paper, we give a recipe to construct unbounded sequences of symplectically embedded $B_{p,q}$ into surfaces of general type equipped with non-canonical symplectic forms. Ultimately, these symplectic embeddings come from Mori's theory of flips, but we give an interpretation in terms of almost toric structu…
