Vanishing homology of projective hypersurfaces with 1-dimensional singularities (Q1682779)

Let \(V\subset \mathbb P^{n+1}\) be a reduced hypersurface of degree \(d\) with equation \(f=0\), and \(V_\varepsilon \subset \mathbb P^{n+1}\) be a one-parameter smoothing defined by the equation \(f+\varepsilon h = 0\) with a general homogeneous polynomial \(h\) of the same degree. Let \(\Delta\) be a small disk centered at \(0\in \mathbb C\) and \[ V_\Delta = \big\{(x,\varepsilon)\in \mathbb P^{n+1}\times \Delta: f+\varepsilon h = 0\big\} \] be the total space of the pencil (cf. Section 5 in [\textit{D. Siersma} and \textit{M. Tibăr}, Mosc. Math. J. 11, No. 3, 599--615 (2011; Zbl 1339.32014)]). By definition, the vanishing homology of \(V\) is the relative homology \(H_\ast(V_\Delta, V_\varepsilon; \mathbb Z)\). In the case when the singular locus \(\Sigma\) of \(V\) has dimension not greater than 1, the authors prove that the vanishing homology groups are trivial in all dimensions except \(n+1\) and \(n+2\). Then they also obtain formulas for the rank of the nontrivial groups and show how these groups depend on properties of the monodromy at certain special points of \(\Sigma\). In conclusion, the authors compute Betti numbers and vanishing homology groups in a series of interesting examples. They also underline that their approach can be applied for computing the homology of a local Milnor fibre via admissible deformations (see [\textit{D. Siersma} and \textit{M. Tibăr}, in: Singularities and computer algebra. Festschrift for Gert-Martin Greuel on the occasion of his 70th birthday. Based on the conference, Lambrecht (Pfalz), Germany, June 2015. Cham: Springer. 305--322 (2017; Zbl 1384.32023)]).