Real map-germs with good perturbations (Q1910446)

The Milnor number \(\mu(f)\) of an analytic map-germ \(f: (\mathbb{C}^n,0) \to (\mathbb{C}^{n+1}, 0)\), is defined as rank of the vanishing cohomology \(H^n (f_t(U), \mathbb{Z})\), where \(f_t\) is a stable perturbation of \(f\), and \(U\) is a small neighborhood of \(0\in \mathbb{C}^n\). If \(f\) and \(f_t\) are defined over \(\mathbb{R}\) then there can be introduced the rank \(\mu_R (f_t)\) of the real vanishing cohomology \(H^n(f_t(U) \cap \mathbb{R}^n, \mathbb{Z})\). Here \(f_t\) is called a good perturbation if \(\mu(f)= \mu_\mathbb{R} (f_t)\). If \(n=1\), there exists a good perturbation for any finitely determined map-germ. The authors show that for \(n=2\), a good perturbation exists if and only if \(f\) is right-left equivalent to \[ (x,y) \mapsto (x,y^2,y^3+x^2y), \text{ or to }(x,y) \mapsto (x,y^3, xy+ y^{3k-1}),\;k\geq 2. \]