Immersions associated with holomorphic germs

A holomorphic germ \Phi: (C^2, 0) \to (C^3, 0), singular only at the origin, induces at the links level an immersion of S^3 into S^5. The regular homotopy type of such immersions are determined by their Smale invariant, defined up to a sign ambiguity. In this paper we fix a sign of the Smale invariant and we show that for immersions induced by holomorphic gems the sign-refined Smale invariant is the negative of the number of cross caps appearing in a generic perturbation of \Phi. Using the algebraic method we calculate it for some families of singularities, among others the A-D-E quotient singularities. As a corollary, we obtain that the regular homotopy classes which admit holomorphic representatives are exactly those, which have non-positive sign-refined Smale invariant. This answers a question of Mumford regarding exactly this correspondence. We also determine the sign ambiguity in the topological formulae of Hughes-Melvin and Ekholm-Szucs connecting the Smale invariant with (singular) Seifert surfaces. In the case of holomorphic realizations of Seifert surfaces, we also determine their involved invariants in terms of holomorhic geometry.