Numerical invariants of perverse sheaves (Q1325166)

``We provide a general framework for associating numerical data to an arbitrary, bounded, constructible complex of sheaves on a complex analytic space. The usefulness of our approach can be seen in how it unifies two seemingly very different problems: how to produce numerical data which generalizes the Milnor number of an isolated affine hypersurface singularity, and how to produce an analytic cycle which represents the MacPherson-Chern class of a given constructible function on an analytic space''. ``We recover the index theorem of Brylinski, Dubson, and Kashiwara, we describe the result of McCrory that the characteristic polar cycles give local MacPherson-Chern classes, we recover a result of Gaffney which gives a new description of the Lê cycles of a hypersurface singularity, and we look at an example related to Damon's work on a generalization of the \(\mu^*\) sequence to nonisolated hypersurface singularities''.