Right unimodal and bimodal singularities in positive characteristic

The problem of classification of real and complex singularities was initiated by Arnol'd in the sixties who classified simple, unimodal and bimodal w.r.t. right equivalence. The classification of right simple singularities in positive characteristic was achieved by Greuel and the author in 2014. In the present paper we classify right unimodal and bimodal singularities in positive characteristic by giving explicit normal forms. Moreover we completely determine all possible adjacencies of simple, unimodal and bimodal singularities. As an application we prove that, for singularities of right modality at most 2, the $\mu$-constant stratum is smooth and its dimension is equal to the right modality. In contrast to the complex analytic case, there are, for any positive characteristic, only finitely many 1-dimensional (resp. 2-dimensional) families of right class of unimodal (resp. bimodal) singularities. We show that for fixed characteristic $p>0$ of the ground field, the Milnor number of $f$ satisfies $\mu(f)\leq 4p$, if the right modality of $f$ is at most 2.Comment: 19 page

Invariants of plane curve singularities and Pl\"ucker formulas in positive characteristic

We study classical invariants for plane curve singularities $f\in K[[x,y]]$, $K$ an algebraically closed field of characteristic $p\geq 0$: Milnor number, delta invariant, kappa invariant and multiplicity. It is known, in characteristic zero, that $\mu(f)=2\delta(f)-r(f)+1$ and that $\kappa(f)=2\delta(f)-r(f)+\mathrm{mt}(f)$. For arbitrary characteristic, Deligne prove that there is always the inequality $\mu(f)\geq 2\delta(f)-r(f)+1$ by showing that $\mu(f)-\left( 2\delta(f)-r(f)+1\right)$ measures the wild vanishing cycles. By introducing new invariants $\gamma,\tilde{\gamma}$, we prove in this note that $\kappa(f)\geq \gamma(f)+\mathrm{mt}(f)-1\geq 2\delta(f)-r(f)+\mathrm{mt}(f)$ with equalities if and only if the characteristic $p$ does not divide the multiplicity of any branch of $f$. As an application we show that if $p$ is "big" for $f$ (in fact $p > \kappa(f)$), then $f$ has no wild vanishing cycle. Moreover we obtain some Pl\"ucker formulas for projective plane curves in positive characteristic.Comment: 15 pages; final version; to appear in the Annales de l'Institut Fourie

Was the Higgs boson discovered?

The standard model has postulated the existence of a scalar boson, named the Higgs boson. This boson plays a central role in a symmetry breaking scheme called the Brout-Englert-Higgs mechanism (or the Brout-Englert-Higgs-Guralnik-Hagen-Kibble mechanism, for completeness) making the standard model realistic. However, until recently at least, the 50-year-long-sought Higgs boson had remained the only particle in the standard model not yet discovered experimentally. It is the last but very important missing ingredient of the standard model. Therefore, searching for the Higgs boson is a crucial task and an important mission of particle physics. For this purpose, many theoretical works have been done and different experiments have been organized. It may be said in particular that to search for the Higgs boson has been one of the ultimate goals of building and running the LHC, the world's largest and most powerful particle accelerator, at CERN, which is a great combination of science and technology. Recently, in the summer of 2012, ATLAS and CMS, the two biggest and general-purpose LHC collaborations, announced the discovery of a new boson with a mass around 125 GeV. Since then, for over two years, ATLAS, CMS and other collaborations have carried out intensive investigations on the newly discovered boson to confirm that this new boson is really the Higgs boson (of the standard model). It is a triumph of science and technology and international cooperation. Here, we will review the main results of these investigations following a brief introduction to the Higgs boson within the theoretical framework of the standard model and Brout-Englert-Higgs mechanism as well as a theoretical and experimental background of its search. This paper may attract interest of not only particle physicists but also a broader audience.Comment: LateX, 23 pages, 01 table, 9 figures. To appear in Commun. Phys. Version 2: Minor changes, two references adde