Morse theory for plane algebraic curves

Abstract

We use Morse theoretical arguments to study algebraic curves in C^2. We take an algebraic curve C in C^2 and intersect it with a family of spheres with fixed origin and varying radii. We explain in detail how does the resulting link change when we cross a singular point of C. Applying link invariants as Murasugi's signature and Levine--Tristram signatures we obtain some informations about possible singularities of a curve C in terms of its topology.