The index of grad f(x,y)

Abstract: Let

f (x, y)

be a real polynomial of degree

d

with isolated critical points, and let

i

be the index of

g r a d f

around a large circle containing the critical points. An elementary argument shows that

| i | l e q d - 1

. In this paper we show that

i l e q m a x 1, d - 3

. We also show that if all the level sets of

f

are compact, then

i = 1

, and otherwise

| i | l e q d r - 1

where

d r

is the sum of the multiplicities of the real linear factors in the homogeneous term of highest degree in

f

. The technique of proof involves computing

i

from information at infinity. The index

i

is broken up into a sum of components

i_{p, c}

corresponding to points

p

in the real line at infinity and limiting values

c i n e a l i n f

of the polynomial. The numbers

i_{p, c}

are computed in three ways: geometrically, from a resolution of

f (x, y)

, and from a Morsification of

f (x, y)

. The

i_{p, c}

also provide a lower bound for the number of vanishing cycles of

f (x, y)

at the point

p

and value

c

.

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