English

On vertices and inflections of singular plane curves

Differential Geometry 2025-05-29 v1

Abstract

Given the germ of a smooth plane curve ({f(x,y)=0},0)(K2,0),K=R,C(\{f(x,y)=0\},0)\subset (\mathbb{K}^2,0), \mathbb{K}=\mathbb{R}, \mathbb{C}, with an isolated singularity, we define two invariants IfI_f and VfN{}V_f \in \mathbb{N} \cup\{\infty\}, which count the number of inflections and vertices (suitably interpreted in the complex case) concentrated at the singular point. The first is an affine invariant, while the second is invariant under similarities of R2\mathbb{R}^2, and their analogue for C2\mathbb{C}^2. When the curve has no smooth components, these invariants are always finite and bounded. We illustrate our results by computing the range of possible values for these invariants for Arnold's K{\cal K}-simple singularities. We also establish a relationship between these invariants, the Milnor number of ff and the contact of the curve germ with its \lq osculating circle\rq.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2505.21601,
  title  = {On vertices and inflections of singular plane curves},
  author = {James William Bruce and Marco Antônio do Couto Fernandes and Farid Tari},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2505.21601},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:2405.19239