Real and complex indices of vector fields on complete intersection curves with isolated singularity

Abstract

If (V, 0) is an isolated complete intersection singularity and X a holomorphic vector field tangent to V, one can define an index of X, the so-called GSV index, which generalizes the Poincaré-Hopf index. We prove that the GSV index coincides with the dimension of a certain explicitly constructed vector space, if X is deformable in a certain sense and V is a curve. We also give a sufficient algebraic criterion for X to be deformable in this way. If one considers the real analytic case one can also define an index of X which is called the real GSV index. Under the condition that X has the deformation property, we prove a signature formula for the index generalizing the Eisenbud-Levine Theorem. © Foundation Compositio Mathematica 2005.