A proof of the Mond conjecture for wave fronts

TL;DR

This paper proves the Mond conjecture for wave fronts, establishing a relationship between parameters of unfoldings and the image spheres, with two different proofs leveraging discriminants and general frontal properties.

Contribution

It provides two proofs of the Mond conjecture for wave fronts, one based on discriminants and another on general frontal properties, broadening potential applications.

Findings

Proof of the Mond conjecture for wave fronts.

Two different proof methods demonstrated.

General tools for frontal analysis developed.

Abstract

We prove the Mond conjecture for wave fronts which states that the number of parameters of a frontal versal unfolding is less than or equal to the number of spheres in the image of a stable frontal deformation with equality if the wave front is weighted homogeneous. We give two different proofs. The first one depends on the fact that wave fronts are related to discriminants of map germs and we then use the analogous result proved by Damon and Mond in this context. The second one is based on ideas by Fern\'andez de Bobadilla, Nu\~no-Ballesteros and Pe\~nafort Sanchis and by Nu\~no-Ballesteros and Fern\'andez-Hern\'andez. The advantage of the second approach is that most results are valid for any frontal, not only wave fronts, and thus give important tools which may be useful to prove the conjecture for frontals in general.