Some Splice Quotient Double Points

Abstract

The splice quotients are an interesting class of normal surface singularities with rational homology sphere links. In general, it can be difficult to determine whether or not a singularity is a splice quotient (an analytic condition). We consider splice quotient deformations of splice quotients of the form z2 = xa + yb, and show that in general not all equisingular deformations are splice quotients.