Techniques for the study of singularities with applications to resolution of 2-dimensional schemes (Q431244)

This article deals with the exposition of a new approach to the problem of choice of suitable centers in a Hironaka style desingularization, i.e. in a resolution of singularities by a sequence of blowing ups. Although constructive proofs of resolution of singularities in characteristic zero have been known and refined for some time now, there are major obstructions to generalizing them to the open case of positive characteristic, e.g. the key inductive argument on the descent in ambient dimension involves `hypersurfaces of maximal contact' which do not exist in positive characteristic. The approach explained in this article replaces the restriction to such hypersurfaces by local projections which exist in any characteristic and which also allow related resolution invariants with significantly easier globalization. It is shown that in characteristic zero this construction provides the same information as the traditional one. A drawback and still open problem of this approach is that it only simplifies the singularities to a monomial case; this in turn is not as straightforward as in Hironakas classical approach and its resolution is not shown in all generality, but only under some additional conditions. As a sample application the case of 2-dimensional embedded schemes is treated.