Perverse results on Milnor fibers inside parameterized hypersurfaces (Q502132)

Let \(F: (\mathcal W,S) \to (\mathcal U,0)\) be a representative of a multigerm \( F: (\mathbb C^n,S) \to (\mathbb C^{n+1},0)\), with image a hypersurface \(X\). The authors are interested in results on the Milnor fibre \(M_{h,\mathbf 0}\) of a complex analytic function \(h: (X,\mathbf 0)\to(\mathbb C,0)\). It is related to the Milnor fibre of \(h\circ F\) at each of the points of \(S\), and the Milnor fibre of \(h\) restricted to the closure of the image of the multiple point set. If \(s\) is the dimension of the topological critical locus of \(h\) (the points in \(V(h)\) where the local Milnor fibre does not have the integral cohomology of a point), then the reduced cohomology of \(M_{h,\mathbf 0}\) can only be non-zero in degrees \(n-1-s\leq k \leq n-1\); this is shown as a consequence of the general theory of perverse sheaves and vanishing cycles. The existence is shown of a perverse sheaf \(\mathbf N^\bullet\), supported on the image double point set \(D\), which deserves the name of \textit{multiple point complex} of \(F\) on \(X\). There is a long exact sequence relating the Milnor fibre of \(h\), the Milnor fibres of \(F\circ h\) and the hypercohomology of the Milnor fibre of \(h\) restricted to \(D\) with coefficients in \(\mathbf N^\bullet\), compatible with monodromy. In the isolated critical point case formulas for the Milnor number are obtained. Applied to a stable unfolding of the parametrisation of a plane curve singularity the authors recover in this way Milnor's formula \(\mu=2\delta-r+1\),