Thom condition and monodromy

Abstract

AbstractWe give the definition of the Thom condition and we show that given any germ of complex analytic function $$f:(X,x)\rightarrow ({\mathbb {C}},0)$$ f : ( X , x ) → ( C , 0 ) on a complex analytic space X, there exists a geometric local monodromy without fixed points, provided that $$f\in {\mathfrak {m}}_{X,x}^2$$ f ∈ m X , x 2 , where $${\mathfrak {m}}_{X,x}$$ m X , x is the maximal ideal of $${\mathcal {O}}_{X,x}$$ O X , x . This result generalizes a well-known theorem of the second named author when X is smooth and proves a statement by Tibar in his PhD thesis. It also implies the A’Campo theorem that the Lefschetz number of the monodromy is equal to zero. Moreover, we give an application to the case that X has maximal rectified homotopical depth at x and show that a family of such functions with isolated critical points and constant total Milnor number has no coalescing of singularities.