Topological Stability of Smooth Mappings

Book excerpt: During the academic year 1974-75, the Department of Pure Mathematics in the University of Liverpool held a seminar on the topological stability of smooth mappings. The main objective was to piece together a complete proof of the topological stability theorem (conjectured by René Thom in 1960, and proved by John Mather in 1970) for which no published accounts existed. This volume comprises a write-up of the seminar by four of the participants. Any mathematician working in this area is conscious of a debt to the inventiveness of Thom, and to Mather for the technical work which placed much that was conjecture on firm mathematical foundations. The proof presented in these notes follows Thom's indications closely, and requires no more than some familiarity with differential topology and commutative algebra of the reader.