Eighth problem of the Arnold trivium

Abstract

We give a full and detailed solution of eighth Arnold's trivium problem. We find critical points of a smooth function on a given one-parametric two-dimensional surface with Lagrange multipliers method. Basic Morse theory and Poincare-Hopf theorem makes it possible to determine a genus of this surface and gives a beautiful training example of Morse surgery on a two-dimensional surface of genus $g = 6$.