Topological equivalence of smooth functions with isolated critical points on a closed surface (Q1602951)

The author studies the global classification, with respect to topological equivalence and conjugacy, of functions with isolated critical points on closed surfaces that extends the one previously obtained for Morse functions by \textit{V. V. Sharko} [On topological equivalence Morse function on surfaces. In Internat. Conference at Chelyabinsk State Univ., Low-Dimensional Topology and Combinatorial Group Theory, 19--23 (1996)] and \textit{E. V. Kulinich} [Methods Funct. Anal. Topol. 4, No. 1, 59--64 (1998; Zbl 0934.57036)]. For this purpose, he associates to each critical value \(y\) of a given function \(f\) on \(M\) a graph determined by the subset \(f^{-1} \) of \( M\). The consideration of all the graphs associated to the critical values of \(f\) leads to what the authos calls diagram of the function \(f\). Then the author shows that these diagrams define an invariant for the classification of functions under topological equivalence. Moreover, he provides sufficient and necessary conditions on a given family of graphs on a surface \(M\) to be the diagram of some function \(f\) on \(M\). This allows him to determine the numbers of all the possible topological equivalence and congugacy classes of functions with minial number of critical points over closed orientable and nonorientable surfaces with genus \(0, 1, 2\) and \(3\).