Gauss-Kronecker curvature and equisingularity at infinity of definable families (Q2092690)

This paper treats equisingularity theory in o-minimal setting. A polynomially bounded o-minimal expansion of the real field is assumed. Let \(F:\mathbb R^{n+1} \to \mathbb R\) be a definable \(\mathcal C^m\) function with \(m \geq 2\) such that \(0\) is a regular value of \(F\). Consider the zero set \(M:=F^{-1}(0)\) and the restriction \(\mathbf{t}_M:M \to \mathbb R\) of the projection of \(\mathbb R^{n+1} \to \mathbb R\) onto the last coordinate to \(M\). Continuity of total (absolute) Gauss-Kronecker curvature functions \(K\) (resp. \(|K|\)) is studied in the paper. The hypersurface \(T_c:=\{\mathbf{x} \in \mathbb R^n\;|\; (\mathbf{x},c) \in M\}\) is oriented by \(\partial_{\mathbf{x}}F(\mathbf{x},c)\). The values \(K(c)\) (resp. \(|K|(c)\)) of \(K\) (resp. \(|K|\)) at \(c\) are defined as the integrals \(\int_{T_c} \kappa_c(\mathbf{x})\ d\mathbf{x}\) (resp. \(\int_{T_c} |\kappa_c(\mathbf{x})|\ d\mathbf{x}\)) of (resp. absolute value of) Gauss-Kronecker curvature function \(\kappa_c(\mathbf{x})\) of \(T_c\) determined by the orientation. The main theorem asserts that \(K\) (resp. \(|K|\)) are continuous at regular values \(c\) when \(c\) satisfies the condition called horizontal sphericalness at infinity. A regular value \(c\) of \(\mathbf{t}_M\) is horizontally spherical at infinity if, for any sequence \((\mathbf{p}_k)_{k \in \mathbb N}\) of \(M\) converging to \((\mathbf{u},c)\) in the infinity part of the sphere compactification of \(M\), \(\mathbf{u}\) is orthogonal to the limit of the unitary gradients \(\frac{\nabla \mathbf{t}_M}{|\nabla \mathbf{t}_M|}(\mathbf{p}_k)\). Note that t-equisingularity at infinity implies horizontal sphericalness at infinity. A key ingredient of the proof is that the set of accumulations of curvature at infinity has measure zero under the above hypothesis. The main theorem provides a kind of reverse implication of the assertion given in [\textit{V. Grandjean}, Geom. Dedicata 140, 1--17 (2009; Zbl 1203.32008)].