 Smooth completing-square proof of the Morse lemma

At a nondegenerate critical point placed at the origin, integral Taylor theorem gives $f(x)-f(0)=x^{T}A(x)x$, where $A(x)$ is a smooth symmetric matrix and $A(0)=\frac{1}{2}\mathrm{Hess}f(0)$. A constant linear change makes $A(0)$ diagonal with entries $\pm 1$. Successive completion of squares, with the Schur complement at each step, produces a smooth invertible triangular matrix $B(x)$ such that $x^{T}A(x)x={\sum }_i{ϵ}_i(B(x)x{)}_i^2$. The pivots keep their nonzero signs near zero. The map $x\mapsto B(x)x$ has invertible derivative at zero, so the inverse function theorem makes it a coordinate system. The signs are the Hessian matrix signature by Sylvester's law of inertia.