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Can anyone recommend a good overview of singularity theory? In particular, quotient singularities...

Thanks!

edited Mar 5 2012 at 17:17

Martin Brandenburg
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asked Mar 5 2012 at 17:01

unknown (google)
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Could you provide a little more context? I think your question is too broad to have a useful criterion for an answer. Morse theory can be considered singularity theory, for example, but it's not clear if you want to allow that general a context. – Ryan Budney Mar 6 2012 at 2:00

Stratified Morse Theory is more useful than Morse Theory for the study of singularities via differential topology. Such applications to algebraic geometry are discussed in the canonical reference, which is a book/monograph called Stratified Morse Theory. (I'm making this a comment because, among other things, I don't know any stratified Morse theory.) – Charles Staats Mar 6 2012 at 20:54

Jesko Hüttenhain · Answer 1 · 2012-03-05 17:31:12Z UTC

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A book I found very helpful was the book by János Kollár, named Lectures on Resolution of Singularities. In §2.3, he discusses Quotient Singularities, mostly in the context of resolution for surfaces.

answered Mar 5 2012 at 17:31

Jesko Hüttenhain
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Daniel Moskovich · Answer 2 · 2012-03-06 01:06:33Z UTC

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Curves and Singularities by J.W. Bruce and P.J. Giblin gives a highly readable overview of basic singularity theory.

answered Mar 6 2012 at 1:06

Daniel Moskovich
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Anton Fonarev · Answer 3 · 2012-03-06 13:07:32Z UTC

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If you are looking for a more topological treatment of the subject, there is a two-volume Singularities of Differentiable Maps by Arnold, Varchenko and Gusein-Zade.

answered Mar 6 2012 at 13:07

Anton Fonarev
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roy smith · Answer 4 · 2012-03-07 18:17:32Z UTC

Perhaps Young person's guide to canonical singularities by Miles Reid. The connection seems to be that at least for surfaces, canonical singularities are exactly quotient singularities by finite subgroups of SL(2,C), (rational double points). In higher dimension the two types no longer coincide. I am a novice, and merely repeating what I have noted from browsing.

Ryan Budney · Answer 5 · 2012-03-07 20:09:39Z UTC

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Golubitsky and Guillemin Stable Mappings and their singularities is a fairly canonical reference for the Thom-Mather-Levine thread of ideas, building off of Whitney and Morse's work.

edited Mar 7 2012 at 20:09

answered Mar 7 2012 at 19:57

Ryan Budney
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Good overview of singularity theory

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