Topological stability through extremely tame retractions

Suppose that F:(Rn×Rd,0)→(Rp×Rd,0) is a smoothly stable, Rd-level preserving germ which unfolds f:(Rn,0)→(Rp,0); then f is smoothly stable if and only if we can find a pair of smooth retractions r:(Rn+d,0)→(Rn,0) and s:(Rp+d,0)→(Rp,0) such that f°r=s°F. Unfortunately, we do not know whether f will be topologically stable if we can find a pair of continuous retractions r and s.The class of extremely tame (E-tame) retractions, introduced by du Plessis and Wall, are defined by their nice geometric properties, which are sufficient to ensure that f is topologically stable.In this article, we present the E-tame retractions and their relation with topological stability, survey recent results by the author concerning their construction, and illustrate the use of our techniques by constructing E-tame retractions for certain germs belonging to the E- and Z-series of singularities.