Comprehensive and self-contained exposition of singularities of plane curves, including new, previously unpublished results.

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This book gives a new foundation for the theory of links in 3-space modeled on the modern developmentby Jaco, Shalen, Johannson, Thurston et al. of the theory of 3-manifolds. The basic construction is a method of obtaining any link by "splicing" links of the simplest kinds, namely those whose exteriors are Seifert fibered or hyperbolic. This approach to link theory is particularly attractive since most invariants of links are additive under splicing. Specially distinguished from this viewpoint is the class of links, none of whose splice components is hyperbolic. It includes all links constructed by cabling and connected sums, in particular all links of singularities of complex plane curves. One of the main contributions of this monograph is the calculation of invariants of these classes of links, such as the Alexander polynomials, monodromy, and Seifert forms.

This book provides a unique and highly accessible approach to singularity theory from the perspective of differential geometry of curves and surfaces. It is written by three leading experts on the interplay between two important fields — singularity theory and differential geometry.The book introduces singularities and their recognition theorems, and describes their applications to geometry and topology, restricting the objects of attention to singularities of plane curves and surfaces in the Euclidean 3-space. In particular, by presenting the singular curvature, which originated through research by the authors, the Gauss-Bonnet theorem for surfaces is generalized to those with singularities. The Gauss-Bonnet theorem is intrinsic in nature, that is, it is a theorem not only for surfaces but also for 2-dimensional Riemannian manifolds. The book also elucidates the notion of Riemannian manifolds with singularities.These topics, as well as elementary descriptions of proofs of the recognition theorems, cannot be found in other books. Explicit examples and models are provided in abundance, along with insightful explanations of the underlying theory as well. Numerous figures and exercise problems are given, becoming strong aids in developing an understanding of the material.Readers will gain from this text a unique introduction to the singularities of curves and surfaces from the viewpoint of differential geometry, and it will be a useful guide for students and researchers interested in this subject.

This second edition is an invaluable textbook for anyone who would like an introduction to the modern theories of catastrophies and singularities.

The Curves The Point of View of Max Noether Probably the oldest references to the problem of resolution of singularities are found in Max Noether's works on plane curves [cf. [148], [149]]. And probably the origin of the problem was to have a formula to compute the genus of a plane curve. The genus is the most useful birational invariant of a curve in classical projective geometry. It was long known that, for a plane curve of degree n having l m ordinary singular points with respective multiplicities ri, i E {1, . . . , m}, the genus p of the curve is given by the formula = (n - l)(n - 2) _ ~ "r. (r. _ 1) P 2 2 L. . ,. •• . Of course, the problem now arises: how to compute the genus of a plane curve having some non-ordinary singularities. This leads to the natural question: can we birationally transform any (singular) plane curve into another one having only ordinary singularities? The answer is positive. Let us give a flavor (without proofs) 2 on how Noether did it • To solve the problem, it is enough to consider a special kind of Cremona trans formations, namely quadratic transformations of the projective plane. Let ~ be a linear system of conics with three non-collinear base points r = {Ao, AI, A }, 2 and take a projective frame of the type {Ao, AI, A ; U}.

This is an excellent introduction to algebraic geometry, which assumes only standard undergraduate mathematical topics: complex analysis, rings and fields, and topology. Reading this book will help establish the geometric intuition that lies behind the more advanced ideas and techniques used in the study of higher-dimensional varieties.

Comprehensive and self-contained exposition of singularities of plane curves, including new, previously unpublished results.