Milnor numbers of projective hypersurfaces with isolated singularities

Abstract

Let V be a projective hypersurface of fixed degree and dimension which has only isolated singular points. We show that, if the sum of the Milnor numbers at the singular points of V is large, then V cannot have a point of large multiplicity, unless V is a cone. As an application, we give an affirmative answer to a conjecture of Dimca and Papadima.