An obstruction for smoothing of Gorenstein surface singularities (Q804669)

Let \((V,0)\) denote a complex analytic space V with an isolated singularity \(0\in V\). The isolated singularity is called smoothable if there is a flat family \(\phi: {\mathcal V}\to D\) over the unit disk D such that \(\phi^{-1}(0)\) is isomorphic to V and the generic fibre of \(\phi\) is non-singular. Examples of non-smoothable isolated singularities have been detected by complex cobordism (first used by R. Thom for this purpose) by studying the link of the singularity, i.e. the intersection of V and the boundary \(S_{\epsilon}^{2N-1}\) of a small ball \(B_{\epsilon}\) about the singular point of V embedded in \({\mathbb{C}}^ N\). \textit{E. Looijenga} and \textit{J. Wahl} [Topology 25, 261-291 (1986; Zbl 0615.32014)] showed that invariants of the linking pairing on the link of the singularity could also be used to detect non-smoothability. The main result of the present paper is to show that Rokhlin's \(\mu\)- invariant can also be used to detect non-smoothability for surface singularities. The connection is as follows. If \(\dim (V,0)=2\), then the link of \(0\in V\) is a closed 3-manifold which may be regarded as the boundary of a resolution \(\tilde V\) of the singularity. If \((V,0)\) is ``Gorenstein'', meaning that (V,0) is normal and there exists a nonzero holomorphic 2-form \(\omega\) on \(V-\{0\}\), then \((\tilde V,\partial \tilde V)\) inherits a spin structure on the complement \(\tilde V-S\) of a (real) 2-dimensional closed surface \(S\subset \tilde V\) representing the Poincaré dual of \(w_ 2(\tilde V)\). The spin structure allows one to define a quadratic form \(q: H_ 1(S,{\mathbb{Z}}/2)\to {\mathbb{Z}}/2\), whose Arf invariant is denoted Arf(S). Then the \(\mu\)-invariant \(\mu (\partial \tilde V)\equiv \frac{1}{8}(\sigma (\tilde V)-S^ 2)+Arf(S)\) (mod 2), where \(\sigma(\tilde V)\) denotes the signature of \(\tilde V\) and \(S^ 2\) the self-intersection of the homology class represented by S in \(\tilde V\) (note that the formula in the lemma, {\S}1, has a misprint). Theorem 1. Let \((V,0)\) be a 2-dimensional smoothable Gorenstein singularity. Let \(\tilde V\) be a resolution with canonical class K and S a smooth (real) surface in \(\tilde V\) dual to \(K\;(\bmod 2)\). Then \(K^ 2+8p_ g=S^ 2+8Arf(S)\) (mod 16), where \(p_ g\) is the geometric genus of \(\tilde V.\) A corollary (theorem 2) gives a condition for smoothability in terms of the configuration of exceptional curves. Explicit examples of isolated singularities violating this condition are given in {\S}3 and the authors point out that the non-smoothability of these examples is not detected by previously studied invariants.