An axiomatic version of Zariski's patching theorem (Q1940349)

Based on detail analysis of earlier works devoted to the study of resolutions of singularities in dimension 3 the author considers six quite formal axioms (openness, stability by normalization, etc.) characterizing certain regularity property in a given birational equivalence class of algebraic threefolds. Making use of the axioms and their combinations, he simplifies essentially proofs of some well-known results, obtains interesting applications concerning resolution of singularities of vector fields in dimension 3 [\textit{F. T. Cano}, Desingularization strategies for three-dimensional vector fields. Monografías de Matemática (Rio de Janeiro) 43. Rio de Janeiro: Instituto de Matemática Pura e Aplicada (IMPA). (1987; Zbl 1049.14006)] and a local version of Hironaka's strong factorization conjecture [\textit{H. Hironaka}, Ann. Math. (2) 79, 109--203, 205--326 (1964; Zbl 0122.38603)] for birational morphisms of nonsingular projective threefolds in characteristic zero, he then adapts \textit{O. Zariski}'s proof of the patching theorem [Ann. Math. (2) 45, 472--542 (1944; Zbl 0063.08361)] to any regularity property satisfying these axioms, discusses some open problems and conjectures, etc.