Can anyone suggest a good overview/introduction of the Floer machine for a beginner? (Someone pointed out some intriguing connections to surface mapping class groups, which might be enough incentive to dip the toe in (though I suppose "total immersion" might be the only realistic option...)
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3$\begingroup$ You might have a look at Andrew Cotton-Clay's thesis. math.harvard.edu/~acotton $\endgroup$– Ian AgolCommented Apr 28, 2012 at 2:59
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$\begingroup$ Although it's not primarily about Floer theory, Ozbagci-Stipsicz "Surgery on contact 3-manifolds" certainly deals with some such connections (where Floer means Heegaard-Floer or Seiberg-Witten in this context). In particular, the relationship between mapping class groups and Lefschetz fibrations is a particularly fruitful source of theorems (see Section 15.3). $\endgroup$– Jonny EvansCommented Apr 28, 2012 at 7:40
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1$\begingroup$ I enjoyed this video of a talk by Dusa McDuff: msri.org/web/msri/online-videos/-/video/showVideo/3995 $\endgroup$– Omar Antolín-CamarenaCommented Apr 28, 2012 at 15:06
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1$\begingroup$ I like the book written by Krohemer&Mrowka Monopoles and 3-manifolds $\endgroup$– Siqi HeCommented Sep 16, 2012 at 2:23
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7 Answers
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Also I should point out that the geometric intuition provided by Andreas Floer in some of his early papers is really quite beautiful and illuminating. For example read the introduction to his 1989 paper, Symplectic Fixed Points and Holomorphic Spheres, in Comm. Math. Phys (120) 575-611.
For the grittier details it's better to look in something like Dietmar's notes or the big book of J-holomorphic curves.
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Michael Hutchings' lecture notes were precisely for this purpose; posted on his webpage: https://math.berkeley.edu/~hutching/
Lecture Notes on Morse Homology (With an Eye Towards Floer Theory and Pseudoholomorphic Curves)
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2$\begingroup$ There is also Lectures on Floer Homology by Dietmar Salamon (particularly for symplectic Floer theory). $\endgroup$ Commented Apr 28, 2012 at 3:14
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Dietmar Salamon's notes are my favorite:
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I wholeheartedly agree with both of Chris Gerig's suggestions.
The small McDuff-Salamon book on holomorphic curves ("J-holomorphic curves and quantum cohomology", available on McDuff's webpage) has a small chapter on Floer homology. The ideas in the rest of the book are also useful for Floer theory.
Audin and Damian have an introductory book called "Théorie de Morse et homologie de Floer". I haven't read it, but I hear good things about it.
If you're going for total immersion, a good place to start is with Seidel's early papers (e.g. arXiv:math/0105186, arXiv:math/9803083, arXiv:math/0309012) where you learn by watching him do things.
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$\begingroup$ Audin and Damian is available in english now too. It is very clearly written. $\endgroup$– user100272Commented May 16, 2017 at 16:57
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1$\begingroup$ The link to the book seems to be broken now - here is a link to the Wayback Machine. The same book is available on Dietmar Salamon's website. $\endgroup$ Commented Jun 8, 2022 at 11:06
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A very good place is Kronheimer and Mrowka's monograph on monopole homology. Chapter 1 goes through the finite dimensional part.
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I can vouch for Audin-Damian's Theorie de Morse et Homologie de Floer, read it cover to cover for my quals. They do Hamiltonian Floer theory with simplifying assumptions ($\omega$ and $c_1$ vanish on $\pi_2$ so there's no need to worry about bubbling, grading issues or caps, which one can learn from Dietmar's notes). They prove everything and provide intuition all along. The most technical estimates used for gluing are grouped into a Chapter that one can skip without loss of understanding. It also does Morse theory as a warm-up.
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Between Hutchings, Audin-Damian, and the other sources you likely have everything you need, but I'll add another.
An Introduction to Sutured Floer Homology, by Irida Altman. https://arxiv.org/pdf/1304.2606.pdf
It contains the content of the first chapter of Altman's thesis, and is not pretentious about its aims. "In places, we try to fill in small gaps that may have been omitted in the original, ‘adult’ publications..."