Algebra and topology of Weierstrass polynomials (Q1103916)

A Weierstrass polynomial of degree \(n\geq 1\) over a topological space X is a polynomial function \(P: X\times {\mathbb{C}}\to {\mathbb{C}}\) of the form \(P(x,z)=z^ n+\sum^{n}_{i=1}a_ i(x)z^{n-i}\), where \(a_ 1,...,a_ n: X\to {\mathbb{C}}\) are continuous, complex valued functions. If P(x,z) has no multiple roots for any \(x\in X\), we call it a ``simple Weierstrass polynomial.'' We associate to a simple Weierstrass polynomial P(x,z) of degree n, an n-fold polynomial covering map \(\pi: E\to X,\) where \(E\subset X\times {\mathbb{C}}\) is the zero set for P(x,z) and \(\pi\) is the projection onto X. We say that two simple Weierstrass polynomials over X are ``topological equivalent'' if their associated polynomial covering maps are equivalent. The first statement is that any simple Weierstrass polynomial over X is topologically equivalent to a simple Weierstrass polynomial of the form \(P(x,z)=z^ n+\sum^{n}_{i=1}\tilde a_ i(x)z^{n-i}\) with \(\tilde a_ 1(x)=0\) for all \(x\in X\). The most elementary type of Weierstrass polynomials over X are those of the form \(P(x,z)=z^ n-q(x)\) \(n\geq 1\), where \(q: X\to {\mathbb{C}}\) is a continuous function. By the above result, any simple Weierstrass polynomial of degree 2 over X is topologically equivalent to the above form. In this paper the author tries to simplify a Weierstrass polynomial of the above form within its topological equivalence class. The statement is that a simple Weierstrass polynomial over X of the form \(P(x,z)=z^ n- q(x)\) is topologically equivalent to its discriminant radical. Here, the discriminant radical of P(x,z) is a Weierstrass polynomial defined by the discriminant function of P(x,z). The author also studies topological structures on the associated polynomial covering maps.