On the universal unfolding of vector fields in one variable: A proof of Kostov's theorem

Abstract

In this note we present variants of Kostov's theorem on a versal deformation of a parabolic point of a complex analytic $1$-dimensional vector field. First we provide a self-contained proof of Kostov's theorem, together with a proof that this versal deformation is indeed universal. We then generalize to the real analytic and formal cases, where we show universality, and to the $C^{\infty }$ case, where we show that only versality is possible.

11 pages