On a conjecture of Varchenko (Q5961434)

Let \(f_i\) be linear functions on \(\mathbb{C}^n\) and \(V_i= V(f_i) \subseteq \mathbb{C}^n\) be the hyperplanes defined by them, \(i=1, \dots, m\). For \(\lambda= (\lambda_1, \dots, \lambda_m) \in \mathbb{C}^m\), the product \(\varphi_\lambda: =\prod f_i^{\lambda_i}\) defines a multivalued function on \(Y= \mathbb{C}^n \backslash \cup V_i\). Varchenko conjectured that all critical points of \(\varphi_\lambda\) are non-degenerate and their number is equal to the absolute value of the topological Euler characteristic of \(Y\). This conjecture was proved for general \(f_1, \dots, f_m\). In this paper a generalization of Varchenko's conjecture is considered and proved: \(\mathbb{C}^n\) is relaced by a smooth projective Variety \(X\) and the \(\mathbb{C}^n \backslash \cup V_i\) by the complement of \(X\) by a hypersurface. The \(\varphi_\lambda\) are locally of type \(f_j^{\lambda_j} \cdot h\), \(h\) nonzero at the neighbourhood.