The Gauss-Bonnet defect of complex affine hypersurfaces (Q2490041): Difference between revisions

The authors compute the Gauss-Bonnet defect of algebraic hypersurfaces \(Y\subset\mathbb C^{n+1}\). It is defined as the difference between the total curvature and the Euler characteristic, by the formula \[ GB(Y):=\omega_n^{-1}\int_Y K\,dv-\chi(Y), \] where \(K\) denotes the Lipschitz-Killing curvature, and \(\omega_n\) is a constant depending on \(n\). The Gauss-Bonnet defect is an integer, and may be interpreted as the correction term due to the boundary at infinity of \(Y\). The authors make some explicit computations in the case of isolated singularities, and for affine curves.