Complete subdivision algorithms, II: Isotopic meshing of singular algebraic curves

Given a real valued function f(X,Y), a box region B₀⊆R² and ε>0, we want to compute an ε-isotopic polygonal approximation to the restriction of the curve S=f⁻¹(0)={p∈R²:f(p)=0} to B₀. We focus on subdivision algorithms because of their adaptive complexity and ease of implementation. Plantinga & Vegter gave a numerical subdivision algorithm that is exact when the curve S is bounded and non-singular. They used a computational model that relied only on function evaluation and interval arithmetic. We generalize their algorithm to any bounded (but possibly non-simply connected) region that does not contain singularities of S. With this generalization as a subroutine, we provide a method to detect isolated algebraic singularities and their branching degree. This appears to be the first complete purely numerical method to compute isotopic approximations of algebraic curves with isolated singularities.