The order of contact of a holomorphic ideal in \(\mathbb C^2\) (Q2574921)

Let \(I\subset {\mathcal O}({\mathbb C}^n,0)\) be an ideal of (germs of) holomorphic functions near \(0\). Let \(\Gamma\) denote the set of holomorphic mappings \(\gamma: ({\mathbb C},0)\,\rightarrow\,({\mathbb C}^n,0)\) with \(\gamma(0)=0\). For a function \(h:{\mathbb C}\rightarrow{\mathbb C}\) such that \(h(0)=0\), let \({\text{ord}}(\gamma)=\min_k\{{\text{ord}}(\gamma_k)\}\). In this paper, the authors establish an alternate way to compute the invariant \[ T(I)=\sup_{\gamma\in \Gamma}\left(\inf_{f\in I}\frac {{\text{ord}}(f\circ \gamma)}{{\text{ord}}(\gamma)}\right), \] which is called the order of contact of \(I\), when \(n=2\). More precisely, let \(I\subset {\mathcal O}({\mathbb C}^2,0)\) be an ideal and fix any set of generators \(f_1,\ldots, f_k\) of \(I\). For each \(1\leq j\leq k\), let \[ f_j=\prod_{m}(f_{jm})^{P_{jm}} \] be the irreducible decomposition of \(f_j\) in the ring \({\mathcal O}({\mathbb C}^2,0)\). Then \[ T(I)=\max_{j,m}\left(\min_{r}\frac {{\text{ord}}(f_r\circ \gamma_{jm})}{{\text{ord}}(\gamma_{jm})}\right), \] where \(\gamma_{jm}\) is a minimal parametrization of \(C_{jm}=\{f_{jm}=0\}\).