Bifurcation locus and branches at infinity of a polynomial \(f:\mathbb {C}^2\to \mathbb {C}\) (Q2339337)

For a polynomial function \(f: {\mathbb C }^2 \to {\mathbb C }\), the bifurcation set \(B(f)\) is the (finite) subset of \(\mathbb C\) where \(f\) is not a locally trivial fibration. \(B_{\infty} (f)\) denotes the set of bifurcation values at infinity (also denoted as critical values at infinity) consisting of all \(a\in \mathbb C\) at which the restriction of \(f\) to the complement of a sufficiently large ball around \(0 \in {\mathbb C}^2\) is not a locally trivial bundle. Upper bounds for \(\# B_{\infty} (f)\) are known, e.g., in terms of Newton polyhedra [\textit{Le Van Thanh} and \textit{M. Oka}, Publ. Res. Inst. Math. Sci. 31, No. 4, 577--598 (1995; Zbl 0851.32029)] or \(\text{deg} (f)\) [\textit{J. Gwoździewicz} and \textit{A. Płoski}, Zesz. Nauk. Uniw. Jagiell., Univ. Iagell. Acta Math. 1255(39), 109--133 (2001; Zbl 1015.32026)]. A recent result of \textit{J. Gwoździewicz} [Int. Math. Res. Not. 2013, No. 15, 3371--3385 (2013; Zbl 1314.32041)] gives the following estimate: If \(\nu _0\) denotes the number of branches at infinity of the (reduced) fibre \(f^{-1}(0)\), then the number of critical values at infinity other than 0 is at most \(\nu _0\). The authors refine and improve this, applying another method which uses results of \textit{M. Miyanishi} [J. Algebra 68, 268--275 (1981; Zbl 0462.14012); Open algebraic surfaces. Providence, RI: AMS (2001; Zbl 0964.14030)] and \textit{R. V. Gurjar} [in: Proceedings of the Indo-French conference on geometry held in Bombay, India, 1989. Delhi: Hindustan Book Agency. 95--102 (1993; Zbl 0836.14019)]: It is shown that \(\# B_{\infty} (f)\) is at most the number of branches at \(\infty\) of a generic fiber of \(f\). Furthermore, this bound can be diminished by 1 in certain cases.