Vanishing cycles, plane curve singularities, and framed mapping class groups

Abstract: Let f be an isolated plane curve singularity with Milnor fiber of genus at least 5. For all such f, we give (a) an intrinsic description of the geometric monodromy group that does not invoke the notion of the versal deformation space, and (b) an easy criterion to decide if a given simple closed curve in the Milnor fiber is a vanishing cycle or not. With the lone exception of singularities of type $A_n$ and $D_n$, we find that both are determined completely by a canonical framing of the Milnor fiber induced by the Hamiltonian vector field associated to f. As a corollary we answer a question of Sullivan concerning the injectivity of monodromy groups for all singularities having Milnor fiber of genus at least 7.