On multiplicities of the Lyashko-Looijenga mapping on discriminant strata (Q1974241)

The space \({\mathcal P}\) of polynomials \(P(x)=x^{n+1} +p_2x^{n-1}+ \cdots+ p_{n+1}\) is identified with \(\mathbb{C}^n\). For every \(P\) denote by \(t_1, \dots, t_n\) its critical values and form the polynomial \(D(t)=(t-t_1) \dots(t-t_n)=t^n+ d_1t^{n-1} +\cdots +d_n\). The space \({\mathcal D}\) of \(D\)-s is again \(\mathbb{C}^n\). The mapping \((p_2, \dots,p_{n+1}) \mapsto(d_1, \dots,d_n)\) just constructed is called the Lyashko-Looijenga mapping. The LL-mapping is a finite polynomial map \(\mathbb{C}^n\to\mathbb{C}^n\) of multiplicity \((n+1)^{n-1}\). All preimages of nongeneric points of the LL mapping form the discriminant \(\Sigma\) in the source space \({\mathcal P}\). The discriminant \(\Sigma\) consists of polynomials with multiple critical values. The main purpose of this paper is to construct a natural stratification of \({\mathcal P}\) with \({\mathcal P} \setminus \Sigma\) being the only stratum of codimension zero, to prove that the restriction of the LL-mapping to each stratum is nondegenerate and to compute the multiplicity of all these restrictions.