Topological classification of Morse polynomials (Q600710): Difference between revisions

At present, there is no known general topological classification of polynomials of low degree in two real variables, despite of the obvious connections to Hilbert's 16-th problem. The classification problem for polynomials in two variables is closely related to the problem of topological classification of smooth functions \(f: S^2\to \mathbb R\) on the sphere. In the paper under review the author discusses the topological classification of polynomials of degree 4 in two variables having non-degenerate critical points and distinct critical values. The author proves that out of 17746 topological types of smooth Morse functions \(f: S^2\to \mathbb R\) with the same number of critical points, at most 426 types can be realised by polynomials of degree \(4\).