Pham Tien Son

Abstract

        We establish some relations between the polar curve and the discriminant locus of a polynomial f of two complex variables. We then describe the set of bifurcation values of f via its discriminant locus. Based on the Puiseux expansions at infinity of the discriminant locus of f, we also give certain sufficient conditions for the geometric monodromy of f around a critical value at infinity to have no fixed points.