Published online by Cambridge University Press: 19 December 2006
We study deformations of functions on isolated singularities. A unified proof of the equality of Milnor and Tjurina numbers for functions on isolated complete intersections singularities and space curves is given. As a consequence, the base space of their miniversal deformations is endowed with the structure of an $F$-manifold, and we can prove a conjecture of V. Goryunov, stating that the critical values of the miniversal unfolding of a function on a space curve are generically local coordinates on the base space of the deformation.