On the number of cusps of stable perturbations of a plane-to-plane singularity (Q1107180)

The paper under review investigates the number of cusps of stable perturbations of a generic plane-to-plane singularity. Here, a \(C^{\infty}\)-germ f: (\({\mathbb{R}}^ 2,0)\to ({\mathbb{R}}^ 2,0)\) is defined to be generic, if f has a representative f: \(D^ 2_{\epsilon}\to {\mathbb{R}}^ 2\) defined on a closed disc with radius \(\epsilon >0\), such that \(f^{-1}(0)=\{0\}\), \(f| C(f)-\{0\}\) is injective and transverse to \(\partial D^ 2_{\delta}\) for small \(\delta >0\), f has only fold singularities on \(C(f)-\{0\}\) and \(C(f)\) is transverse to \(D^ 2_{\epsilon'}\) for small \(\epsilon '>0\). (C(f) denotes here the set of critical points of f.) If \(\delta >0\) is small, we can define a perturbation \(\tilde f\) of f on \(\tilde D^ 2=f^{-1}(D^ 2_{\delta})\cap D^ 2_{\epsilon}\) such that \(\tilde f\) is stable and the closure of \(\{x\in \tilde D^ 2| \quad \tilde f(x)\neq f(x)\}\) is contained in the interior of \(\tilde D^ 2\). Let \(\kappa(\tilde f)\) be the number of cusps of \(\tilde f.\) Now, two formulas for \(\kappa(\tilde f)\) mod 2 are proved in this paper. The first one determines \(\kappa(\tilde f)\) mod 2 by the number of branches of \(C(f)-\{0\}\) and the mapping degree of f. This implies that \(\kappa(\tilde f)\) mod 2 is a topological invariant of f. The second formula shows that \(\kappa(\tilde f)\) mod 2 is algebraically calculable from f. The formulas for \(\kappa(\tilde f)\) mod 2 are obtained by proving a global formula for singularities of maps between compact oriented 2-manifolds with boundary. This formula modifies and is also obtained from a corresponding formula of \textit{J. R. Quine} [Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 236, 307-314 (1978; Zbl 0379.57006)] for maps between 2 manifolds without boundary. The authors also consider stable real-analytic deformations of real-analytic germs, and another restriction for the number of cusps of such deformations is obtained, using complex analytic geometry.