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Let $(f,g): (S,s) \to (\mathbb{C}^2, 0)$ be a finite morphism from a germ of normal complex analytic surface to the germ of $\mathbb{C}^2$ at the origin. We show that the affine algebraic curve in $\mathbb{C}^2$ defined by the initial Newton polynomial of a defining series of the discriminant germ of $(f,g)$ depends up to toric automorphisms only on the germs of curves defined by $f$ and $g$. This result generalizes a theorem of Gryszka, Gwo\'zdziewicz and Parusi\'nski, which is the special case in which $(S,s)$ is smooth. Our proof uses a common generalization of formulas of L\^e and Casas-Alvero for the intersection number of the discriminant with a germ of plane curve. It uses also a theorem of Delgado and Maugendre characterizing the special members of pencils of curves on normal surface singularities. We apply it to the pencils generated by all pairs $(f^b, g^a)$, for varying positive integral exponents $a, b$, following a strategy initiated by Gwo\'zdziewicz. This is similar to the Eudoxian method of comparison of magnitudes by comparing the sizes of their positive integral multiples., Comment: 27 pages, 3 figures

We study a broad class of morsifications of germs of univariate real analytic functions. We characterize the combinatorial types of the resulting Morse functions, via planar contact trees constructed from Newton-Puiseux roots of the polar curves of the morsifications., Comment: 23 pages, 16 figures. Compared to the first version, we clarified some statements as well as Figure 1 and we added Example 6.4 and Remarks 6.8, 7.1. To appear in Mathematische Nachrichten

Splice type surface singularities, introduced in 2002 by Neumann and Wahl, provide all examples known so far of integral homology spheres which appear as links of complex isolated complete intersections of dimension two. They are determined, up to a form of equisingularity, by decorated trees called splice diagrams. In 2005, Neumann and Wahl formulated their Milnor fiber conjecture, stating that any choice of an internal edge of a splice diagram determines a special kind of decomposition into pieces of the Milnor fibers of the associated singularities. These pieces are constructed from the Milnor fibers of the splice type singularities determined by the subdiagrams on both sides of the chosen edge. In this paper we give an overview of this conjecture and a detailed outline of its proof, based on techniques from tropical geometry and log geometry in the sense of Fontaine and Illusie. The crucial log geometric ingredient is the operation of rounding of a complex logarithmic space introduced in 1999 by Kato and Nakayama. It is a functorial generalization of the operation of real oriented blowup. The use of the latter to study Milnor fibrations was pioneered by A'Campo in 1975., Comment: 50 pages, 13 figures. Improved exposition, following referee's comments. This paper will appear as a chapter of the book "Essays in Geometry, Dedicated to Norbert A'Campo", A. Papadopoulos ed., EMS Publishing House, Berlin, 2023

The present lecture notes give an introduction to works of Garc\'{i}a Barroso, Gonz\'alez P\'erez, Ruggiero and the author. The starting point of those works is a theorem of P\l oski, stating that one defines an ultrametric on the set of branches drawn on a smooth surface singularity by associating to any pair of distinct branches the quotient of the product of their multiplicities by their intersection number. We show how to construct ultrametrics on certain sets of branches drawn on any normal surface singularity from their mutual intersection numbers and how to interpret the associated rooted trees in terms of the dual graphs of adapted embedded resolutions. The text begins by recalling basic properties of intersection numbers and multiplicities on smooth surface singularities and the relation between ultrametrics on finite sets and rooted trees. On arbitrary normal surface singularities one has to use Mumford's definition of intersection numbers of curve singularities drawn on them, which is also recalled., Comment: 29 pages, 9 figures. Lecture notes of a course given at the "International school on singularities and Lipschitz geometry" hold in Cuernavaca, Mexico, from 11 to 22 June 2018. Compared to the previous version, it contains minor changes

This survey may be seen as an introduction to the use of toric and tropical geometry in the analysis of plane curve singularities, which are germs $(C,o)$ of complex analytic curves contained in a smooth complex analytic surface $S$. The embedded topological type of such a pair $(S, C)$ is usually defined to be that of the oriented link obtained by intersecting $C$ with a sufficiently small oriented Euclidean sphere centered at the point $o$, defined once a system of local coordinates $(x,y)$ was chosen on the germ $(S,o)$. If one works more generally over an arbitrary algebraically closed field of characteristic zero, one speaks instead of the combinatorial type of $(S, C)$. One may define it by looking either at the Newton-Puiseux series associated to $C$ relative to a generic local coordinate system $(x,y)$, or at the set of infinitely near points which have to be blown up in order to get the minimal embedded resolution of the germ $(C,o)$ or, thirdly, at the preimage of this germ by the resolution. Each point of view leads to a different encoding of the combinatorial type by a decorated tree: an Eggers-Wall tree, an Enriques diagram, or a weighted dual graph. The three trees contain the same information, which in the complex setting is equivalent to the knowledge of the embedded topological type. There are known algorithms for transforming one tree into another. In this paper we explain how a special type of two-dimensional simplicial complex called a lotus allows to think geometrically about the relations between the three types of trees. Namely, all of them embed in a natural lotus, their numerical decorations appearing as invariants of it. This lotus is constructed from the finite set of Newton polygons created during any process of resolution of $(C,o)$ by successive toric modifications., Comment: 104 pages, 58 figures. Compared to the previous version, section 2 is new. The historical information, contained before in subsection 6.2, is distributed now throughout the paper in the subsections called "Historical comments''. More details are also added at various places of the paper. To appear in the Handbook of Geometry and Topology of Singularities I, Springer, 2020

In this text I present some problems which led to the introduction of special kinds of graphs as tools for studying singular points of algebraic surfaces. I explain how such graphs were first described using words, and how several classification problems made it necessary to draw them, leading to the elaboration of a special kind of calculus with graphs. This non-technical paper is intended to be readable both by mathematicians and philosophers or historians of mathematics., Comment: 24 pages, 27 figures. A few corrections were performed. Figure 6 is new. Figure 20 is a combination of Figures 19 and 20 of version 1. The paper will appear as a chapter of the volume "When Form Becomes Substance", edited by Luciano Boi and Carlos Lobo (Birkh\"auser, 2022)

Consider a germ $C$ of reduced curve on a smooth germ $S$ of complex analytic surface. Assume that $C$ contains a smooth branch $L$. Using the Newton-Puiseux series of $C$ relative to any coordinate system $(x,y)$ on $S$ such that $L$ is the $y$-axis, one may define the {\em Eggers-Wall tree} $\Theta_L(C)$ of $C$ relative to $L$. Its ends are labeled by the branches of $C$ and it is endowed with three natural functions measuring the characteristic exponents of the previous Newton-Puiseux series, their denominators and contact orders. The main objective of this paper is to embed canonically $\Theta_L(C)$ into Favre and Jonsson's valuative tree $\mathbb{P}(\mathcal{V})$ of real-valued semivaluations of $S$ up to scalar multiplication, and to show that this embedding identifies the three natural functions on $\Theta_L(C)$ as pullbacks of other naturally defined functions on $\mathbb{P}(\mathcal{V})$. As a consequence, we prove an inversion theorem generalizing the well-known Abhyankar-Zariski inversion theorem concerning one branch: if $L'$ is a second smooth branch of $C$, then the valuative embeddings of the Eggers-Wall trees $\Theta_{L'}(C)$ and $\Theta_L(C)$ identify them canonically, their associated triples of functions being easily expressible in terms of each other. We prove also that the space $\mathbb{P}(\mathcal{V})$ is the projective limit of Eggers-Wall trees over all choices of curves $C$. As a supplementary result, we explain how to pass from $\Theta_L(C)$ to an associated splice diagram., Comment: 45 pages, 20 figures

Let $L$ be a fixed branch -- that is, an irreducible germ of curve -- on a normal surface singularity $X$. If $A,B$ are two other branches, define $u_L(A,B) := \dfrac{(L \cdot A) \: (L \cdot B)}{A \cdot B}$, where $A \cdot B$ denotes the intersection number of $A$ and $B$. Call $X$ arborescent if all the dual graphs of its resolutions are trees. In a previous paper, the first three authors extended a 1985 theorem of P{\l}oski by proving that whenever $X$ is arborescent, the function $u_L$ is an ultrametric on the set of branches on $X$ different from $L$. In the present paper we prove that, conversely, if $u_L$ is an ultrametric, then $X$ is arborescent. We also show that for any normal surface singularity, one may find arbitrarily large sets of branches on $X$, characterized uniquely in terms of the topology of the resolutions of their sum, in restriction to which $u_L$ is still an ultrametric. Moreover, we describe the associated tree in terms of the dual graphs of such resolutions. Then we extend our setting by allowing $L$ to be an arbitrary semivaluation on $X$ and by defining $u_L$ on a suitable space of semivaluations. We prove that any such function is again an ultrametric if and only if $X$ is arborescent, and without any restriction on $X$ we exhibit special subspaces of the space of semivaluations in restriction to which $u_L$ is still an ultrametric., Comment: 50 pages, 14 figures. Final version

Let $f(x,y)$ be a complex irreducible formal power series without constant term. One may solve the equation $f(x,y)=0$ by choosing either $x$ or $y$ as independent variable, getting two finite sets of Newton-Puiseux series. In 1967 and 1968, Abhyankar and Zariski published proofs of an \emph{inversion theorem}, expressing the \emph{characteristic exponents} of one set of series in terms of those of the other ones. In fact, a more general theorem, stated by Halphen in 1876 and proved by Stolz in 1879, relates also the \emph{coefficients} of the characteristic terms of both sets of series. This theorem seems to have been completely forgotten. We give two new proofs of it and we generalize it to a theorem concerning equations with an arbitrary number of variables., Comment: 27 pages. This is the final published version. The introduction and several proofs were modified according to the recommendations of the referee. The bibliography was augmented, Mathematische Annalen. Online first on 03.12.2016

Let $S$ be a normal complex analytic surface singularity. We say that $S$ is arborescent if the dual graph of any resolution of it is a tree. Whenever $A,B$ are distinct branches on $S$, we denote by $A \cdot B$ their intersection number in the sense of Mumford. If $L$ is a fixed branch, we define $U_L(A,B)= (L \cdot A)(L \cdot B)(A \cdot B)^{-1}$ when $A \neq B$ and $U_L(A,A) =0$ otherwise. We generalize a theorem of P{\l}oski concerning smooth germs of surfaces, by proving that whenever $S$ is arborescent, then $U_L$ is an ultrametric on the set of branches of $S$ different from $L$. We compute the maximum of $U_L$, which gives an analog of a theorem of Teissier. We show that $U_L$ encodes topological information about the structure of the embedded resolutions of any finite set of branches. This generalizes a theorem of Favre and Jonsson concerning the case when both $S$ and $L$ are smooth. We generalize also from smooth germs to arbitrary arborescent ones their valuative interpretation of the dual trees of the resolutions of $S$. Our proofs are based in an essential way on a determinantal identity of Eisenbud and Neumann., Comment: 37 pages, 16 figures. Compared to the first version on Arxiv, il has a new section 4.3, accompanied by 2 new figures. Several passages were clarified and the typos discovered in the meantime were corrected

In this paper we explore the generalized Nash problem for arcs on a germ of smooth surface: given two prime divisors above its special point, to determine whether the arc space of one of them is included in the arc space of the other one. We prove that this problem is combinatorial and we explore its relation with several notions of adjacency of plane curve singularities., Comment: Final version

We show that isolated surface singularities which are non-normal may have Milnor fibers which are non-diffeomorphic to those of their normalizations. Therefore, non-normal isolated singularities enrich the collection of Stein fillings of links of normal isolated singularities. We conclude with a list of open questions related to this theme., Comment: 14 pages, 1 figure. Compared to the first version on ArXiv, I added Remark 5.10, containing information communicated to me by J\'anos Koll\'ar. Proceedings of Singularities in Geometry and Applications III, Edinburgh, Scotland, 2013. J.-P. Brasselet, P. Giblin, V. Goryunov eds

We propose a generalization of the classical notions of plumbing and Murasugi summing operations to smooth manifolds of arbitrary dimensions, so that in this general context Gabai's credo "the Murasugi sum is a natural geometric operation" holds. In particular, we prove that the sum of the pages of two open books is again a page of an open book and that there is an associated summing operation of Morse maps. We conclude with several open questions relating this work with singularity theory or contact topology., Comment: 54 pages, 31 figures. We revised the first version according to the referee's comments

Consider a plane branch, that is, an irreducible germ of curve on a smooth complex analytic surface. We define its blow-up complexity as the number of blow-ups of points necessary to achieve its minimal embedded resolution. We show that there are $F_{2n-4}$ topological types of blow-up complexity $n$, where $F_{n}$ is the $n$-th Fibonacci number. We introduce complexity-preserving operations on topological types which increase the multiplicity and we deduce that the maximal multiplicity for a plane branch of blow-up complexity $n$ is $F_n$. It is achieved by exactly two topological types, one of them being distinguished as the only type which maximizes the Milnor number. We show moreover that there exists a natural partial order relation on the set of topological types of plane branches of blow-up complexity $n$, making this set a distributive lattice, that is, any two of its elements admit an infimum and a supremum, each one of these operations beeing distributive relative to the second one. We prove that this lattice admits a unique order-inverting bijection. As this bijection is involutive, it defines a duality for topological types of plane branches. The type which maximizes the Milnor number is also the maximal element of this lattice and its dual is the unique type with minimal Milnor number. There are $F_{n-2}$ self-dual topological types of blow-up complexity $n$. Our proofs are done by encoding the topological types by the associated Enriques diagrams., Comment: 21 pages, 16 pages

In this paper we propose a general functorial definition of the operation of \emph{local tropicalization} in commutative algebra. Let $R$ be a commutative ring, $\Gamma$ a finitely generated subsemigroup of a lattice, $\gamma : \Gamma \rightarrow R/ R^*$ a morphism of semigroups, and $\V(R)$ the topological space of valuations on $R$ taking values in $\R \cup \infty$. Then we may \emph{tropicalize} with respect to $\gamma$ any subset $\W$ of the space of valuations $\V(R)$. By definition, we get a subset of a rational polyhedral cone canonically associated to $\Gamma$, enriched with strata at infinity. In particular, when $R$ is a local ring, $\gamma$ is a \emph{local} morphism of semigroups, and $\W$ is the space of valuations which are either positive or non-negative on $R$, we call these processes \emph{local tropicalizations}. They depend only on the ambient toroidal structure, which in turn allows to define tropicalizations of subvarieties of toroidal embeddings. We prove that with suitable hypothesis, these local tropicalizations are the supports of finite rational polyhedral fans enriched with strata at infinity and we compare the global and local tropicalizations of a subvariety of a toric variety., Comment: 67 pages, 6 figures. With respect to the previous version, it incorporates the changes asked by the referees. In particular, there are more explanations, examples and figures. It will appear in "Tropical Geometry", Proceedings Castro Urdiales 2011, E. Brugall\'e, M.A. Cueto, A. Dickenstein, E.M. Feichtner and I. Itenberg editors, Contemporary Mathematics, AMS, 2013

Consider a normal complex analytic surface singularity. It is called Gorenstein if the canonical line bundle is holomorphically trivial in some punctured neighborhood of the singular point and is called numerically Gorenstein if this line bundle is topologically trivial. The second notion depends only on the topological type of the singularity. Laufer proved in 1977 that, given a numerically Gorenstein topological type of singularity, every analytical realization of it is Gorenstein if and only if one has either a Kleinian or a minimally elliptic topological type. The question to know if any numerically Gorenstein topology was realizable by some Gorenstein singularity was left open. We prove that this is indeed the case. Our method is to plumb holomorphically meromorphic 2-forms obtained by adequate pull-backs of the natural holomorphic symplectic forms on the total spaces of the canonical line bundles of complex curves. More generally, we show that any normal surface singularity is homeomorphic to a Q-Gorenstein singularity whose index is equal to the smallest common denominator of the coefficients of the canonical cycle of the starting singularity., Comment: 16 pages. It is the final, published, version

The sandwiched surface singularities are those rational surface singularities which dominate birationally smooth surface singularities. de Jong and van Straten showed that one can reduce the study of the deformations of a sandwiched surface singularity to the study of deformations of a 1-dimensional object, a so-called decorated plane curve singularity. In particular, the Milnor fibers corresponding to their various smoothing components may be reconstructed up to diffeomorphisms from those deformations of associated decorated curves which have only ordinary singularities. Part of the topology of such a deformation is encoded in the incidence matrix between the irreducible components of the deformed curve and the points which decorate it, well-defined up to permutations of columns. Extending a previous theorem ofours, which treated the case of cyclic quotient singularities, we show that the Milnor fibers which correspond to deformations whose incidence matrices are different up to permutations of columns are not diffeomorphic in a strong sense. This gives a lower bound on the number of Stein fillings of the contact boundary of a sandwiched singularity., Comment: 16 pages, 5 figures

Consider a smooth point O of a complex analytic surface S. A constellation based at O is a set of infinitely near points of O, centers of a sequence of blow-ups above O. Finite constellations are usually encoded in two ways: either using an Enriques diagram, or using the dual graph of the divisor obtained by blowing-up the points of the constellation. Both are decorated trees which encode completely the combinatorics of the constellation. Algorithms of passage from one to the other are known, but they do not allow to get a geometrical picture of their relation. We associate to a constellation a geometrical simplicial complex of dimension two, called its kite, endowed with an affine structure, and we prove that it contains canonically both the Enriques diagram and the dual graph. Moreover, the decorations of the two trees may be read very easily on the affine geometry of the kite. This allows to understand geometrically the relations between the graphs, as well as their relation with the valuative tree of Favre and Jonsson, which may be interpreted as the dual graph of the constellation of all the points infinitely near O. In fact, the kites of finite constellations get glued into an infinite kite endowed with a 1-dimensional foliation, whose space of leaves is the valuative tree. The transition towards the computations with continued fractions is ensured by partial embeddings of the kites into a simplicial complex canonically associated to a base of a lattice, called its lotus. This last notion is briefly explored in any dimension., Comment: 34 pages, 23 figures. In French

Each elliptic curve can be embedded uniquely in the projective plane, up to projective equivalence. The hessian curve of the embedding is generically a new elliptic curve, whose isomorphism type depends only on that of the initial elliptic curve. One gets like this a rational map from the moduli space of elliptic curves to itself. We call it the hessian dynamical system. We compute it in terms of the $j$-invariant of elliptic curves. We deduce that, seen as a map from a projective line to itself, it has 3 critical values, which correspond to the point at infinity of the moduli space and to the two elliptic curves with special symmetries. Moreover, it sends the set of critical values into itself, which shows that all its iterates have the same set of critical values. One gets like this a sequence of dessins d'enfants. We describe an algorithm allowing to construct this sequence., Comment: 13 pages and 11 figures. Compared with the first version, the important remark 5.2 was added. To appear in "Noncommutativity and Singularity", Proceedings of French-Japanese Symposia, IHES, 2006. J. P. Bourguignon, M.Kotani, Y.Maeda, N.Tose eds, Advanced Studies in Pure Maths 55, 2009

The oriented link of the cyclic quotient singularity $\mathcal{X}_{p,q}$ is orientation-preserving diffeomorphic to the lens space $L(p,q)$ and carries the standard contact structure $\xi_{st}$. Lisca classified the Stein fillings of $(L(p,q), \xi_{st})$ up to diffeomorphisms and conjectured that they correspond bijectively through an {\it explicit} map to the Milnor fibers associated with the irreducible components (all of them being smoothing components) of the reduced miniversal space of deformations of $\mathcal{X}_{p,q}$. We prove this conjecture using the smoothing equations given by Christophersen and Stevens. Moreover, based on a different description of the Milnor fibers given by de Jong and van Straten, we also canonically identify these fibers with Lisca's fillings. Using these and a newly introduced additional structure - the order - associated with lens spaces, we prove that the above Milnor fibers are pairwise non-diffeomorphic (by diffeomorphisms which preserve the orientation and order). This also implies that de Jong and van Straten parametrize in the same way the components of the reduced miniversal space of deformations as Christophersen and Stevens., Comment: 34 pages. Compared to the first version, details of the computations were added in section 8

Consider a fixed connected, finite graph $\Gamma$ and equip its vertices with weights $p_i$ which are non-negative integers. We show that there is a finite number of possibilities for the coefficients of the canonical cycle of a numerically Gorenstein surface singularity having $\Gamma$ as the dual graph of the minimal resolution, the weights $p_i$ of the vertices being the arithmetic genera of the corresponding irreducible components. As a consequence we get that if $\Gamma$ is not a cycle, then there is a finite number of possibilities of self-intersection numbers which one can attach to the vertices which are of valency $\geq 2$, such that one gets the dual graph of the minimal resolution of a numerically Gorenstein surface singularity. Moreover, we describe precisely the situations when there exists an infinite number of possibilities for the self-intersections of the component corresponding to some fixed vertex of $\Gamma$., Comment: 10 pages

An odd-dimensional differentiable manifold is called \emph{holomorphically fillable} if it is diffeomorphic to the boundary of a compact strongly pseudoconvex complex manifold, \emph{Stein fillable} if this last manifold may be chosen to be Stein and \emph{Milnor fillable} if it is diffeomorphic to the abstract boundary of an isolated singularity of normal complex analytic space. We show that the homotopical dimension of a manifold-with-boundary of dimension at least 4 restricts the cohomology ring (with any coefficients) of its boundary. This gives restrictions on the cohomology rings of Stein fillable manifolds, on the dimension of the exceptional locus of any resolution of a given isolated singularity, and on the topology of smoothable singularities. We give also new proofs of structure theorems of Durfee & Hain and Bungart about the cohomology rings of Milnor fillable and respectively holomorphically fillable manifolds. The various structure theorems presented in this paper imply that in dimension at least 5, the classes of Stein fillable, Milnor fillable and holomorphically fillable manifolds are pairwise different., Comment: 20 pages. This paper combines the two previous papers arXiv:0711.1149 and arXiv:0711.2941 and gives more background on strongly pseudoconvex manifolds and strictly plurisubharmonic functions. In the meantime I have discovered that two of the theorems proved in those papers had already been proved, by Durfee & Hain and Bungart respectively

I have withdrawn the paper, after having incorporated it into the paper arXiv:0712.3484. In the meantime I have discovered that the main theorem proved in the paper had already been proved by Bungart., Comment: This paper was withdrawn

I have withdrawn the paper, after having incorporated it into the paper arXiv:0712.3484. In the meantime I have discovered that one of the theorems proved in the paper had already been proved by Durfee & Hain., Comment: This paper has been withdrawn

The present notes originated in the introductory course given at the Trieste Summer School on Resolution of Singularities, in June 2006. They focus on the resolution of complex analytic curves and surfaces by Jung's method. They do not contain detailed proofs, but mainly explanations of the main concepts and of their interrelations, as well as heuristics., Comment: 35 pages, 7 figures. This is the published version. Compared to the first version on ArXiv, it contains a few corrections and a new final section of open problems

Let (X,0) be a germ of complex analytic normal variety, non-singular outside 0. An essential divisor over (X,0) is a divisorial valuation of the field of meromorphic functions on (X,0), whose center on any resolution of the germ is an irreducible component of the exceptional locus. The Nash map associates to each irreducible component of the space of arcs through 0 on X the unique essential divisor intersected by the strict transform of the generic arc in the component. Nash proved its injectivity and asked if it was bijective. We prove that this is the case if there exists a divisorial resolution \pi of (X,0) such that its reduced exceptional divisor carries sufficiently many \pi-ample divisors (in a sense we define). Then we apply this criterion to construct an infinite number of families of 3-dimensional examples, which are not analytically isomorphic to germs of toric 3-folds (the only class of normal 3-fold germs with bijective Nash map known before)., Comment: 19 pages, 2 figures

We survey the use of continued fraction expansions in the algebraical and topological study of complex analytic singularities. We also prove new results, firstly concerning a geometric duality with respect to a lattice between plane supplementary cones and secondly concerning the existence of a canonical plumbing structure on the abstract boundaries (also called links) of normal surface singularities. The duality between supplementary cones gives in particular a geometric interpretation of a duality discovered by Hirzebruch between the continued fraction expansions of two numbers l >1 and l/(l - 1)., Comment: 54 pages, 25 figures. To appear in Singularities-Sapporo 2004, Advanced Studies in Pure Mathematics, Kinokuniya, Tokyo, 2006. With respect to the first version, I added references to papers by Dais, Haus and Henk; Giroux; Gonzalez-Sprinberg. They are alluded to at the end of section 5. I also added explanations at the beginning of section 5.1

Let (S,0) be a germ of complex analytic normal surface. On its minimal resolution, we consider the reduced exceptional divisor E and its irreducible components E_i. The Nash map associates to each irreducible component C_k of the space of arcs through 0 on S the unique component of E cut by the strict transform of the generic arc in C_k. Nash proved its injectivity and asked if it was bijective. As a particular case of our main theorem, we prove that this is the case if E.E_i <0 for any i., Comment: 8 pages; compared to the first version, we changed slightly the title in order to make it similar with the title of math.AG/0605566 (where the main theorem 5.1 is generalized to arbitrary dimensions) and we modified remarks 3.2 and 4.2

A germ of normal complex analytical surface is called a Hirzebruch-Jung singularity if it is analytically isomorphic to the germ at the 0-dimensional orbit of an affine toric surface. Two such germs are known to be isomorphic if and only if the toric surfaces corresponding to them are equivariantly isomorphic. We extend this result to higher-dimensional Hirzebruch-Jung singularities, which we define to be the germs analytically isomorphic to the germ at the 0-dimensional orbit of an affine toric variety determined by a lattice and a simplicial cone of maximal dimension. We deduce a normalization algorithm for quasi-ordinary hypersurface singularities., Comment: 22 pages

We associate to any irreducible germ S of complex quasi-ordinary hypersurface an analytically invariant semigroup. We deduce a direct proof (without passing through their embedded topological invariance) of the analytical invariance of the normalized characteristic exponents. These exponents generalize the generic Newton-Puiseux exponents of plane curves. Incidentally, we give a toric description of the normalization morphism of the germ S., Comment: 29 pages