Morse theory for analytic functions on surfaces

Abstract

In this paper we deal with analytic functions \( f:S \to \mathbb{R} \) defined on a compact two dimensional Riemannian surface S whose critical points are semi degenerated (critical points having a non identically vanishing Hessian). To any element p of the set of semi degenerated critical points Q we assign an unique index which can take the values −1, 0 or 1, and prove that Q is made up of finitely many (critical) points with non zero index and embedded circles. Further, we generalize the famous Morse result by showing that the sum of the indexes of the critical points of f equals χ (S), the Euler characteristic of S. As an intermediate result we locally describe the level set of f near a point p ∈Q. We show that the level set f−1(f (p)) is either a) the set {p}, or b) the graph of a smooth curve passing through p, or c) the graphs of two smooth curves tangent at p or d) the graphs of two smooth curves building at p a cusp shape.