We consider an equisingularity problem for polynomial families of affine hypersurfaces $X_τ\subset \mathbb C^n$ with (at worst) isolated singularities. We show that the constancy of the global polar invariants $γ^* (X_τ)$ is equivalent to the $t$-equisingularity at infinity, an asymptotic-type equisingularity that we introduce. We prove that $γ^*$-constancy implies C$^\infty$-triviality in the neighbourhood of infinity. We show how the invariants $γ^*$ enter in the description of a CW-complex model of a hypersurface $X_τ$ and therefore provide in particular new invariants at infinity for polynomial functions $f: \mathbb C^n \to \mathbb C$.
This is a survey on Zariski equisingularity. We recall its definition, main properties, and a variety of applications in Algebraic Geometry and Singularity Theory. In the first part of this survey, we consider Zariski equisingular families of complex analytic or algebraic hypersurfaces. We also discuss how to construct Zariski equisingular deformations. In the second part, we present Zariski equisingularity of hypersurfaces along a nonsingular subvariety and its relation to other equisingularity conditions. We also discuss the canonical stratification of such hypersurfaces given by the dimensi…
Suppose that $f$ defines a singular, complex affine hypersurface. If the critical locus of $f$ is one-dimensional at the origin, we obtain new general bounds on the ranks of the homology groups of the Milnor fiber, $F_{f, \mathbf 0}$, of $f$ at the origin, with either integral or $\mathbb Z/p\mathbb Z$ coefficients. If the critical locus of $f$ has arbitrary dimension, we show that the smallest possibly non-zero reduced Betti number of $F_{f, \mathbf 0}$ completely determines if $f$ defines a family of isolated singularities, over a smooth base, with constant Milnor number. This result has a n…
In the study of equisingularity of isolated singularities we have the classical theorem of Briancon, Speder and Teissier which states that a family of isolated hypersurface singularities is Whitney equisingular if and only if the mu^*-sequence for a hypersurface is constant in the family. In this paper we generalize to non-isolated hypersurface singularities. By assuming non-contractibility of strata of a Whitney stratification of the non-isolated singularities outside the origin we show that Whitney equisingularity of a family is equivalent to constancy of a certain selection of invariants fr…
In an unpublished lecture note, J. Briançon observed that if $\{f_t\}$ is a family of isolated complex hypersurface singularities such that the Newton boundary of $f_t$ is independent of $t$ and $f_t$ is non-degenerate, then the corresponding family of hypersurfaces $\{f_t^{-1}(0)\}$ is Whitney equisingular (and hence topologically equisingular). A first generalization of this assertion to families with non-isolated singularities was given by the second author under a rather technical condition. In the present paper, we give a new generalization under a simpler condition.
This is the LaTeX version of the handwritten notes of a lecture at the Kyoto Singularities Symposium held at the RIMS in April 1978. It presents the relationship of various invariants of isolated singularities of complex analytic hypersurfaces with the jacobian Newton polygon built from the polar curves. An appendix presents features of the semiring of Newton polygons, because the product of Jacobian Newton polygons corresponds to the Thom-Sebastiani sum of hypersurfaces. Analogies between mixed multiplicities and mixed volumes are noticed. They have been explained since.
We prove that the outer Lipschitz geometry of a germ $(X,0)$ of a normal complex surface singularity determines a large amount of its analytic structure. In particular, it follows that any analytic family of normal surface singularities with constant Lipschitz geometry is Zariski equisingular. We also prove a strong converse for families of normal complex hypersurface singularities in $\mathbb C^3$: Zariski equisingularity implies Lipschitz triviality. So for such a family Lipschitz triviality, constant Lipschitz geometry and Zariski equisingularity are equivalent to each other.
We study the Euler characteristic of the Milnor fibre of a hypersurface singularity. This invariant is given in terms of the Euler characteristic of a fibre in between the original singularity and its Milnor fibre and in terms of the Euler characteristics associated to strata of the in-between fibre. From this we can deduce a result of Massey and Siersma regarding singularities with a one-dimensional critical locus. The result is also applied to the study of equisingularity. The famous Briançon-Speder-Teissier result states that a family of isolated hypersurface singularities is equisingular i…
Assume given a polynomially bounded o-minimal structure expanding the real numbers. Let $(T_s)_{s\in \mathbb{R}}$ be a globally definable one parameter family of $C^2$-hypersurfaces of $\mathbb{R}^n$. Upon defining the notion of generalized critical value for such a family we show that the functions $s \to |K(s)|$ and $s\to K(s)$, respectively the total absolute Gauss-Kronecker and total Gauss-Kronecker curvature of $T_s$, are continuous in any neighbourhood of any value which is not generalized critical. In particular this provides a necessary criterion of equisingularity for the family of th…
We extend the approach Abbott, Kedlaya and Roe to computation of the zeta function of a projective hypersurface with $τ$ isolated ordinary double points over a finite field $\mathbb{F}_q$ given by the reduction of a homogeneous polynomial $f \in \mathbb{Z}[x_0, \ldots, x_n]$, under the assumption of equisingularity over $\mathbb{Z}_q$. The algorithm is based on the results of Dimca and Saito (over the field $\mathbb{C}$ of complex numbers) on the pole order spectral sequence in the case of ordinary double points. We give some examples of explicit computations for surfaces in $\mathbb{P}^3$.
We study a simplicial mixed polynomial of cyclic type and its associated weighted homogeneous polynomial. In the present paper, we show that their links are diffeomorphic and their Milnor fibrations are isomorphic.
Kähler's paper "Über die Verzweigung einer algebraischen Funktion zweier Veränderlichen in der Umgebung einer singulären Stelle" offered a more perceptual view of the link of a complex plane curve singularity than that provided shortly before by Brauner. Kähler's innovation of using a "square sphere" became standard in the toolkit of later researchers on singularities. We describe his contribution and survey developments since then, including a brief discussion of the topology of isolated hypersurface singularities in higher dimension.
We introduce a class of combinatorial hypersurfaces in the complex projective space. They are submanifolds of codimension~2 in $\C P^n$ and are topologically "glued" out of algebraic hypersurfaces in $(\C^*)^n$. Our construction can be viewed as a version of the Viro gluing theorem, relating topology of algebraic hypersurfaces to the combinatorics of subdivisions of convex lattice polytopes. If a subdivision is convex, then according to the Viro theorem a combinatorial hypersurface is isotopic to an algebraic one. We study combinatorial hypersurfaces resulting from non-convex subdivisions of c…
Polar weighted homogeneous polynomials are the class of special polynomials of real variables $x_i,y_i, i=1,..., n$ with $z_i=x_i+\sqrt{-1} y_i$, which enjoys a "polar action". In many aspects, their behavior looks like that of complex weighted homogeneous polynomials. We study basic properties of hypersurfaces which are defined by polar weighted homogeneous polynomials.
This is an introduction to topology of complement to plane curves and hypersurfaces in the projective space and is based on the lectures given in Lumini in February and in ICTP (Trieste) in August of 2005. We discuss key problems concerning the families of singular curves, the one variable Alexander polynomials and the module over ring of Laurent polynomials structure on the homotopy groups of the complements to hypersurfaces with isolated singularities. We also discuss multivariable generalizations of these invariants and the Hodge theory of infinite abelian covers used in calculations of mul…
These are notes of the mini-course I gave during the CIMPA summer school at Villa de Leyva, Colombia, in July $2014$. The subject was my joint work with Damien Gayet on the topology of random real hypersurfaces, restricting myself to the case of projective spaces and focusing on our lower estimates. Namely, we estimate from (above and) below the mathematical expectation of all Betti numbers of degree $d$ random real projective hypersurfaces. For any closed connected hypersurface $Σ$ of $\mathbb{R}^n$, we actually estimate from below the mathematical expectation of the number of connected compo…
In this paper, we prove that the Milnor fibre of a singularity over an i.c.i.s. of dimension 3 has the homotopy type of a bouquet of spheres, provided that the function that defines the singularity has finite extended codimension with respect to the ideal that defines the i.c.i.s.
We consider the topology for a class of hypersurfaces with highly nonisolated singularites which arise as exceptional orbit varieties of a special class of prehomogeneous vector spaces, which are representations of linear algebraic groups with open orbits. These hypersurface singularities include both determinantal hypersurfaces and linear free (and free*) divisors. Although these hypersurfaces have highly nonisolated singularities, we determine the topology of their Milnor fibers, complements and links. We do so by using the action of linear algebraic groups beginning with the complement, ins…
We call a real algebraic hypersurface in $(\mathbb{C}^*)^n$ simplicial if it is given by a real Laurent polynomial in $n$-variables that has exactly $n+1$ monomials with non-zero coefficients and such that the convex hull in $\mathbb{R}^n$ of the $n+1$ points of $\mathbb{Z} ^n$ corresponding to the exponents is a non-degenerate $n$-dimensional simplex. Such hypersurfaces are natural building blocks from which more complicated objects can be constructed, for example using O. Viro's Patchworking method. Drawing inspiration from related work by G. Kerr and I. Zharkov, we describe the action of th…
We study the topology of the space of affine hyperplanes $L \subset \CC^n$ which are in general position with respect to a given generic quadratic hypersurface $A$, and calculate the monodromy action of the fundamental group of this space on the relative homology groups $H_*(\CC^n, A \cup L)$ associated with such hyperplanes.
We define twisted Alexander polynomials of a complex hypersurface with arbitrary singularities. These generalize the classical Alexander polynomials of high dimensional hypersurfaces and the twisted Alexander polynomial of plane curves. We recover the classical torsionness and divisibility results, which say that, under certain assumptions, the twisted Alexander modules of a complex hypersurface are torsion modules, and that their orders, the twisted Alexander polynomials, divide the product of certain `local polynomials' defined in terms of the topology near singularities.
Let $\mathrm{R}$ be a real closed field. We prove that the number of semi-algebraically connected components of a real hypersurface in $\mathrm{R}^n$ defined by a multi-affine polynomial of degree $d$ is bounded by $2^{d-1}$. This bound is sharp and is independent of $n$ (as opposed to the classical bound of $d(2d -1)^{n-1}$ on the Betti numbers of hypersurfaces defined by arbitrary polynomials of degree $d$ in $\mathrm{R}^n$ due to Petrovski{\uı} and Ole{\uı}nik, Thom and Milnor). Moreover, we show there exists $c > 1$, such that given a sequence $(B_n)_{n >0}$ where $B_n$ is a closed ball in…
We use slicing by nongeneric pencils of hypersurfaces and prove a new theorem of Lefschetz type for singular non compact spaces, at the homotopy level. As applications, we derive results on the topology of the fibres of polynomial functions or the topology of complements of hypersurfaces in $\mathbb C^n$.
We study the topology of a line singularity, which is a complex hypersurface with non-isolated singularity given by a complex line. We describe the degeneration of its Milnor fibre to the singular hypersurface by means of a pair of polyhedra, one in the Milnor fibre and other in the singular fibre, which are deformation retracts of the corresponding fibres; and a continuous map taking the Milnor fibre to the singular fibre and the first polyhedron to the second one, which restrict to a homeomorphism outside the polyhedra. In the same sense, we also study the topology of a complex isolated sing…
We study the topology of the boundary manifold of a regular neighborhood of a complex projective hypersurface. We show that, under certain Hodge theoretic conditions, the cohomology ring of the complement of the hypersurface functorially determines that of the boundary. When the hypersurface defines a hyperplane arrangement, the cohomology of the boundary is completely determined by the combinatorics of the underlying arrangement and the ambient dimension. We also study the LS category and topological complexity of the boundary manifold, as well as the resonance varieties of its cohomology rin…
In this paper we obtain an explicit formula for the number of hypersurfaces in a compact complex manifold X (passing through the right number of points), that has a simple node, a cusp or a tacnode. The hypersurfaces belong to a linear system, which is obtained by considering a holomorphic line bundle L over X. Our main tool is a classical fact from differential topology: the number of zeros of a generic smooth section of a vector bundle V over M, counted with a sign, is the Euler class of V evaluated on the fundamental class of M.
We consider the moduli space $\mathcal{R}_n$ of pairs of monic, degree $n$ polynomials whose resultant equals $1$. We relate the topology of these algebraic varieties to their geometry and arithmetic. In particular, we compute their étale cohomology, the associated eigenvalues of Frobenius, and the cardinality of their set of $\mathbb{F}_q$-points. When $q$ and $n$ are coprime, we show that the étale cohomology of $\mathcal{R}_{n/\bar{\mathbb{F}}_q}$ is pure, and of Tate type if and only if $q\equiv 1$ mod $n$. We also deduce the values of these invariants for the finite field counterparts of …
We prove a new non-splitting result for the cohomology of the Milnor fiber, reminiscent of the classical result proved independently by Lazzeri, Gabrielov, and Lê in 1973-74. We do this while exploring a conjecture of Bobadilla about a stronger version of our non-splitting result. To explore this conjecture, we define a new numerical invariant for hypersurfaces with $1$-dimensional critical loci: the beta invariant. The beta invariant is an invariant of the ambient topological-type of the hypersurface, is non-negative, and is algebraically calculable. Results about the beta invariant remove th…
Fix any algebraic extension $\mathbb K$ of the field $\mathbb Q$ of rationals. In this article we study exponential sets $V\subset \mathbb R^n$. Such sets are described by the vanishing of so called exponential polynomials, i.e., polynomials with coefficients from $\mathbb K$, in $n$ variables, and in $n$ exponential functions. The complements of all exponential sets in $\mathbb R^n$ form a Noethrian topology on $\mathbb R^n$, which we will call Zariski topology. Let $P \in {\mathbb K}[X_1, \ldots ,X_n,U_1, \ldots ,U_n]$ be a polynomial such that $$V=\{ \mathbf{x}=(x_1, \ldots , x_n) \in \math…
