On topological invariance of the Milnor number mod 2 (Q1312075)

Let \(f=(f_ 1,\dots,f_ n)\): \((\mathbb{R}^ n,0)\to (\mathbb{R}^ p,0)\), \(p<n\), be the germ of an analytic mapping, and \(f_ \mathbb{C}\) its complexification. Let \(L\) be the intersection of the fibre \(f^{-1}(0)\) with a small sphere, and \(\beta(L)=\dim_{\mathbb{Z}_ 2} (H_ *(L,\mathbb{Z}_ 2))\), \(\mu (f_ \mathbb{C})\) the Milnor number of \(f_ \mathbb{C}\), where \(f^{- 1}(0)\) has an isolated singularity at 0. This paper gives a much more elementary proof for a theorem of \textit{C. T. C. Wall} [Topology 22, 345-350 (1983; Zbl 0516.58010)] and also obtains an important generalization to the case of algebraic manifolds in \(\mathbb{R}^ n\) as follows. Let \(f=(f_ 1,\dots,f_ n)\) be a polynomial mapping, \(W=f^{-1} (0)\), \(K=W \cap S^{n-1}_ R\), \(R \gg 0\); let \(I\) be the ideal generated by \(f_ 1,\dots,f_ n\) and all \((p+1) \times\)\((p+1)\)-minors of the derivative matrix \(D(f_ 1,\dots,f_ n,\omega)\), where \(\omega=(x^ 2_ 1+\cdots+x^ 2_ n)/2\), and \(\delta= \dim_ \mathbb{C} \mathbb{C}[z_ 1,\dots,z_ n]/I\). Then, for \(W\) a complete intersection, i.e., rank \(D(f_ 1, \dots,f_ n,\omega)=p\), the authors prove an interesting relation: \[ \beta (K)/2 \equiv \chi (W) \equiv \delta \text{ mod 2} \] where \(\chi\) is the Euler characteristic.