Isolated singularities of binary differential equations of degree n

Abstract

We study isolated singularities of binary differential equations of degree n which are totally real. This means that at any regular point, the associated algebraic equation of degree n has exactly n different real roots (this generalizes the so called positive quadratic differential forms when n = 2). We introduce the concept of index for isolated singularities and generalize Poincar'e-Hopf theorem and Bendixson formula. Moreover, we give a classification of phase portraits of the n-web around a generic singular point. We show that there are only three types, which generalize the Darbouxian umbilics D1, D2 and D3.