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Mathematical Research Letters
Volume 24 (2017)
Number 5
Towards a link theoretic characterization of smoothness
Pages: 1239 – 1262
DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.4310/MRL.2017.v24.n5.a1
Authors
Abstract
A theorem of Mumford states that, on complex surfaces, any normal isolated singularity whose link is diffeomorphic to a sphere is actually a smooth point. While this property fails in higher dimensions, McLean asks whether the contact structure that the link inherits from its embedding in the variety may suffice to characterize smooth points among normal isolated singularities. He proves that this is the case in dimension $3$. In this paper, we use techniques from birational geometry to extend McLean’s result to a large class of higher dimensional singularities. We also introduce a more refined invariant of the link using CR geometry, and conjecture that this invariant is strong enough to characterize smoothness in full generality.
Keywords
link, contact structure, minimal log discrepancy, Nash blow-up, CR structure
2010 Mathematics Subject Classification
Primary 14B05. Secondary 32S05, 32V05, 53D10.
The research of the first author was partially supported by NSF Grant DMS-1402907 and NSF FRG Grant DMS-1265285. The research of the second author was partially supported by NSF FRG Grant DMS-1265285.
Received 30 August 2016
Accepted 22 January 2017
Published 29 December 2017