Toric embedded resolutions of quasi-ordinary hypersurface singularities (Q1417738)

A germ of a complex analytic variety is quasi-ordinary if there exists a finite projection to the complex affine space with discriminant locus contained in a normal crossing divisor. Some properties of complex analytic curve singularities generalize to quasi-ordinary singularities in higher dimensions, for example the existence of fractional power series parametrization, as well as the existence of some distinguished, {characteristic} monomials in the parametrization. The paper gives two different affirmative solutions to a problem of Lipman: do the characteristic monomials of a reduced hypersurface quasi-ordinary singularity determine a procedure of embedded resolution of the singularity? The first procedure builds a sequence of toric morphisms depending only on the characteristic monomials. Along the way characteristic monomials are defined for toric quasi-ordinary hypersurface singularities, and their properties are studied. The second procedure generalizes a method of Goldin and Tessier for plane branches. A key step is the re-embedding of the germ in a larger affine space using certain approximate roots of a Weierstrass polynomial. In the last two sections the two procedures are compared and a detailed example is worked out.