Distinguished bases and monodromy of complex hypersurface singularities

Abstract

We give a survey on some aspects of the topological investigation of isolated singularities of complex hypersurfaces by means of Picard-Lefschetz theory. We focus on the concept of distinguished bases of vanishing cycles and the concept of monodromy.

This is intended as a chapter of the forthcoming "Handbook on the Geometry and Topology of Singularites"