The image Milnor number and excellent unfoldings

Abstract: We show three basic properties on the image Milnor number $\mu_I(f)$ of a germ $f\colon(\mathbb{C}^{n},S)\rightarrow(\mathbb{C}^{n+1},0)$ with isolated instability. First, we show the conservation of the image Milnor number, from which one can deduce the upper semi-continuity and the topological invariance for families. Second, we prove the weak Mond's conjecture, which says that $\mu_I(f)=0$ if and only if $f$ is stable. Finally, we show a conjecture by Houston that any family $f_t\colon(\mathbb{C}^{n},S)\rightarrow(\mathbb{C}^{n+1},0)$ with $\mu_I(f_t)$ constant is excellent in Gaffney's sense. By technical reasons, in the two last properties we consider only the corank 1 case.