A regularization approach for estimating the type of a plane curve singularity (Q385004)

The paper addresses the problem of analyzing the local topology of each singularity of a plane complex algebraic curve defined by a squarefree polynomial. The local topology is computed by means of a symbolic-numeric algorithm that uses tools from knot theory, namely the Alexander polynomial and the delta-invariant of the singularity. As a novelty, the paper deals not only with the exact case, but also with the case when the coefficients of the polynomial defining the curve are known up to a finite tolerance. In this case, the computation of the local topology is an ill-posed problem, in the sense that tiny changes in the input may result in qualitative changes in the output. In the inexact case, the paper also provides a parameter choice rule that satisfies the \textit{convergence for noisy data property}. This implies that as the noise in the data reduces to zero, the output provided by the algorithm converges to the exact answer. Furthermore, the algorithm is implemented in a new software package called CENOM3CK, written in the Axel free algebraic geometric modeler and in the Mathemagix free computer algebra system. A potential application of the algorithm is the computation of the genus of an implicit algebraic curve, whose coefficients are known up to a fixed tolerance.