Invariance of Milnor numbers and topology of complex polynomials (Q1409275)

Let \(f_t : {\mathbb C}^n \to {\mathbb C}\), \(t \in [0,1]\), be a family of polynomial maps, \(f_t \in {\mathbb C}[t,x_1, \dots, x_n]\), \(n \geq 2\), having only isolated singularities and \(\mu(t)\) the (affine) Milnor number (the sum of the local Milnor numbers at critical points of \(f_t\)) and \(\lambda(t)\) the Milnor number at infinity (the sum of the local Milnor numbers at critical points of \(f_t\) at infinity). Suppose that \(\mu(t)\), \(\lambda (t)\), the number of critical points and the number of critical points at infinity for fixed \(t\) do not depend on \(t\). Moreover, suppose that the critical values at infinity depend continuously on \(t\). Then the fibrations \(f_0^{-1}({\mathbb C} \smallsetminus B\bigl(0)\bigr) \to {\mathbb C} \smallsetminus B(0)\) and \(f_1^{-1}\bigl({\mathbb C} \smallsetminus B(1)\bigr) \to {\mathbb C} \smallsetminus B(1)\) are fibre homotopy equivalent and for \(n \not= 3\) differentiably isomorphic. Here \(B(0)\), resp.\ \(B(1)\), is the set of critical points of \(f_0\), resp.\ \(f_1\). Under the additional assumption that \(\lambda(t) = 0\) and \(n \not= 3\), it is proved that \(f_0\) and \(f_1\) are topologically equivalent. In the case \(n = 2\) the same holds without requiring \(\lambda(t) = 0\) but \(\deg(f_t)\) not depending on \(t\).