IPA-deformations of functions on affine space (Q1797251)

The author defines a notion concerning deformations with isolated polar activity or IPA-deformations, which is a more general notion than that of the old prepolar deformations. An IPA-deformation is roughly analogous to an unfolding of a map-germ such that the map-germ has an isolated instability with respect to the given unfolding. The aim of the paper is to investigate deformations of functions on affine space, deformations in which the changes specialize to a distinguished point in the zero-locus of the original function. Such deformations (deformations with isolated polar activity) enable the author to obtain nice results on the cohomology of the Milnor fiber of the original function.