Conjectures on Stably Newton Degenerate Singularities

Abstract

Abstract We discuss a problem of Arnold, whether every function is stably equivalent to one which is non-degenerate for its Newton diagram. We argue that the answer is negative. We describe a method to make functions non-degenerate after stabilisation and give examples of singularities where this method does not work. We conjecture that they are in fact stably degenerate, that is not stably equivalent to non-degenerate functions. We review the various non-degeneracy concepts in the literature. For finite characteristic, we conjecture that there are no wild vanishing cycles for non-degenerate singularities. This implies that the simplest example of singularities with finite Milnor number, $$x^p+x^q$$ <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:mrow> <mml:msup> <mml:mi>x</mml:mi> <mml:mi>p</mml:mi> </mml:msup> <mml:mo>+</mml:mo> <mml:msup> <mml:mi>x</mml:mi> <mml:mi>q</mml:mi> </mml:msup> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> in characteristic p , is not stably equivalent to a non-degenerate function. We argue that irreducible plane curves with an arbitrary number of Puiseux pairs (in characteristic zero) are stably non-degenerate. As the stabilisation involves many variables, it becomes very difficult to determine the Newton diagram in general, but the form of the equations indicates that the defining functions are non-degenerate.

Locations

• Arnold Mathematical Journal - View - PDF