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Questions tagged [floer-homology]

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25 votes
3 answers
7k views

What does Yang-Mills and mass gap problem has to do with mathematics?

I'm not very experienced in this topic, but I read a short description of the Yang-Mills existence and mass gap problem, and as long as I understood it has mainly physical consequences and ...
23 votes
7 answers
9k views

Introduction to Floer Theory?

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 ...
21 votes
1 answer
1k views

How is Chern-Simons theory related to Floer homology?

Chern-Simons theory (say, with gauge group $G$) is the quantum theory of the Chern-Simons functional $$CS(A)=\frac{k}{8\pi^2}\int_M \text{Tr}\left(A\wedge dA + \frac{2}{3}A\wedge A \wedge A\right)$$ ...
Henry's user avatar
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16 votes
1 answer
2k views

Why is embedded contact homology so powerful?

The Embedded Contact Homology (ECH), introduced by M. Hutchings, is an invariant of (contact) three-manifolds. Since its introduction, well-known conjectures in symplectic/contact topology in ...
Shaoyun Bai's user avatar
15 votes
1 answer
1k views

Where are $+$, $-$ and $\infty$ in bordered Heegaard-Floer theory?

Here goes my first MO-question. I've just read Lipshitz, Ozsváth and Thurston's recently updated "A tour of bordered Floer theory". To set the stage let me give two quotes from this paper. Heegaard ...
Stefan Behrens's user avatar
14 votes
4 answers
2k views

Other Homology Theories still Count Holes?

This may be a naive question, but since first learning homology I considered it as a tool which counts appropriate holes in your space (on top of orientation and torsion phenomena). Then I was ...
Chris Gerig's user avatar
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13 votes
3 answers
2k views

The "miracle" of Heegard Floer.

Taking tori in symmetric products and "miraculously" proving that the Floer homology is independent of choices always seemed, well, miraculous. Some time ago Max Lipyanski explained to me the origins ...
Max M's user avatar
  • 804
13 votes
2 answers
1k views

Maslov index and Heegard Floer homology

I am an undergraduate who wants to learn Knot Floer homology. I was told to start with this expository paper which was working quite well until I reached the actual definition of the differential. ...
anonymous's user avatar
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12 votes
1 answer
986 views

Why is Heegaard Floer Homology defined in terms of Sym$^g\Sigma_g$ instead of Pic$^g\Sigma_g$?

Recall the definition of Heegaard Floer homology: $\Sigma_g$ is a closed surface, and $\{\alpha_1,\ldots,\alpha_g\}$ and $\{\beta_1,\ldots,\beta_g\}$ are sets of attaching circles. Then Heegaard ...
John Pardon's user avatar
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11 votes
1 answer
962 views

Monopole Floer Homology vs. Heegaard-Floer theory

I have a (possibly very naive) question: what is the relation between Monopole Floer Homology and Heegaard-Floer theory? (both known and conjectured) Is there some version of Atiyah-Floer conjecture ...
Nati's user avatar
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11 votes
2 answers
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Fredholm property about $L^p$-extension $(p\neq 2)$ of differential operators

The following is a well-known result for elliptic operators. Theorem. Let $P: \Gamma(E)\to \Gamma(F)$ be an elliptic operator of order $m$ between vector bundles $E$ and $F$ over a compact ...
Hang's user avatar
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11 votes
0 answers
527 views

Floer cohomology from mapping spaces of $\infty$ categories

There's a meta-observation (of Urs Schreiber, who attributes it to Ken Brown and Lurie) that 'cohomology theories come from mapping spaces of $(\infty,1)$ categories'. This is described in detail at ...
zzz's user avatar
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10 votes
2 answers
2k views

Floer homology and Invariants for Einstein Field Equations?

Motivation: There have been the instanton (anti-self dual connection) solutions to the Yang-Mills equation $d_A^\ast F_A=0$ which extremize the YM energy $\int_M|F_A|^2$, leading to the Donaldson ...
Chris Gerig's user avatar
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10 votes
3 answers
1k views

Index theorem interpretation of the spectral flow for a pseudo holomorphic curve

Let $(M , \omega)$ be a symplectic manifold, $J$ a compatible almost complex structure. We call pseudo holomorphic strip a solution $u : \mathbb R \times I \to M$ of the equation $\partial_s u + J \...
marsupilam's user avatar
10 votes
0 answers
897 views

Roadmap to Floer homotopy theory?

I am a young postdoc working in symplectic topology. Recently I became intrigued by Floer homotopy, especially after seeing it had been applied to classical questions in symplectic topology. (e.g. ...
9 votes
1 answer
2k views

What is Floer homology of a knot?

I've heard that there are different theories providing knot invariants in form of homologies. My understanding is that if you embed knot in a special way into a space, there is a special homology ...
Ilya Nikokoshev's user avatar
9 votes
2 answers
1k views

Orientations for pseudoholomorphic curves with totally real boundary condition

I am trying to understand what the obstructions are to orienting moduli spaces of pseudoholomorphic curves with totally real boundary condition. I believe that Fukaya-Oh-Ohta-Ono have shown that if ...
Sam Lisi's user avatar
  • 1,242
9 votes
3 answers
668 views

Do we get a instanton $S^{3}$ if we do $1/n$ surgery on a knot in $S^{3}$?

Consider the following question: Let $K\subset S^{3}$ be a nontrivial knot, and let $Y$ be the manifold obtained by doing $1/n$-surgery ($n\geq1$). Is it possible that the instanton Floer homology of $...
user44651's user avatar
  • 1,069
9 votes
1 answer
545 views

Citation hunting: Floer on spectral sequences

I vaguely remember a YouTube talk that began with a citation from Floer regarding the existence of a spectral sequence. The idea was that given a manifold with a Morse function, we can construct a ...
Arye Deutsch's user avatar
9 votes
1 answer
356 views

Is the instanton homology for webs and foams a categorified Chern-Simons?

In their paper, Kronheimer and Mrowka constructed an instanton homology $J^{\#}$ for webs and foams and conjectured that for planar webs, $\dim J^{\#}=\#\text{ of Tait colorings}$. According to my ...
Henry's user avatar
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8 votes
1 answer
533 views

How to compute the Monopole Floer Homology for Surface $\times S^1$ ?

We know that Monopole Floer homology of a 3-manifold $M$ depends on a spin-c structure. My question is that if $M$ is $F\times S^1$ ($F$ is a surface of genus larger than 1) then how can we compute ...
juliuslin's user avatar
8 votes
1 answer
474 views

$\pi_0${plane fields}$\to\mathbb{Z}_2$

On a 3-manifold $Y$, oriented 2-plane fields $\xi$ are oriented rank-2 subbundles of $TY$. Denote the set of such (up to homotopy) by $\Theta=\pi_0\lbrace\xi\rbrace$. What is an explicit canonical map ...
Chris Gerig's user avatar
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8 votes
0 answers
251 views

Exact triangle for monopole Floer homology with $\mathbb{Z}$-coefficient

Let $Y$ be oriented 3 manifold with torus boundary and let $\gamma_{j}$ (j=0,1,2) be three curves on its boundary with $\#(\gamma_{j}\cap \gamma_{j+1})=-1$. We denote by $Y_{j}$ the manifold obtained ...
user44651's user avatar
  • 1,069
8 votes
0 answers
694 views

SFT gluing on chain level in Floer homology?

I came across a new type of gluing in the FOOO paper http://arxiv.org/abs/1002.1660 (maybe not so new to experts). The situation is as follows: one considers a relative (to lagrangian) class and ...
Weiwei's user avatar
  • 211
7 votes
1 answer
790 views

Lagrangian intersection Floer homology: understanding some assumptions

Let $(X,\omega)$ be a symplectic manifold and $L\subset X$ be a Lagrangian subspace. Let $\mu_L:H_2(X,L;\mathbb{Z})\to \mathbb{Z}$ be the Maslov index homomorphism. Usual hypothesis Recall that $L$...
Overflowian's user avatar
  • 2,533
7 votes
1 answer
680 views

Relation between symplectic (co)homology and Hochschild (co)homology and deformations

A very fluffy question in which I'm ignorant of homology/cohomology, grading etc: The open-closed and closed-open string maps relating the symplectic (co)homology and Hochschild (co)homology of the ...
86846515312's user avatar
7 votes
0 answers
211 views

$A_{\infty}$ multiplications on Morse cochain complex

Can the higher order $A_{\infty}$ multiplications defined by Fukaya be made trivial(by perturbing gradient trees) when Morse cochain complex is isomorphic to Morse cohomology, in which case the cup ...
Arun 's user avatar
  • 745
7 votes
0 answers
404 views

Finding basis of cohomology of a symplectic manifold by using Symplectic Minimal Model Program

My question is about Floer theory via symplectic surgery of Minimal Model program for finding basis of cohomology. Motivation: Perelman for solving Thurston's Geometrization Conjecture used some sort ...
user avatar
6 votes
2 answers
890 views

The Floer Equation is Elliptic

Let $(M,\omega)$ be a symplectic manifold and $H \in C^\infty(M \times \mathbb{S}^1)$. Furthermore, let $J$ be an $\omega$-compatible almost complex structure on $M$. The Floer equation is the ...
TheGeekGreek's user avatar
6 votes
2 answers
1k views

Reference Request: "Neck Stretching Procedure" (In Symplectic Field Theory)

I've been reading some papers in Symplectic Geometry which refer to something called "Stretching the neck", and give reference to Eliashberg, Givental and Hofer's SFT paper (http://arxiv.org/abs/math/...
Yaniv Ganor's user avatar
  • 1,893
6 votes
2 answers
1k views

Computations in Knot Homology Theories

1) Relative to one another, how computable are the various knot homology theories? For example, how many crossings can we allow a knot and still hope to compute its Khovanov homology, versus its knot ...
Harold Williams's user avatar
6 votes
1 answer
791 views

Almost complex structures in Floer theory

When defining the Floer cohomology $HF(L_0,L_1)$ of 2 Lagrangians in a symplectic manifold $(M,\omega)$, one first has to choose some extra data such a 1-parameter family of almost complex structures ...
Richard's user avatar
  • 61
6 votes
2 answers
1k views

Background needed to understand modern research on knot homology theories

I am a student of mathematics, and have some background in Algebraic Topology (Hatcher, Bott-Tu, Milnor-Stasheff), Differential Geometry (Lee, Kobayashi-Nomizu), Riemannian Geometry (Do Carmo), ...
user142103's user avatar
6 votes
1 answer
718 views

Bubbling off of a pseudo holomorphic sphere on surface with cylindrical ends

I need some clarification about the reason why we have a sphere bubbling off in the situation described by Seidel in The Symplectic Floer Homology of a Dehn Twist. I’ll try to summarize to the best ...
Riccardo's user avatar
  • 2,018
6 votes
1 answer
602 views

Path of almost complex structure in the definition of Heegaard Floer homology

$\DeclareMathOperator\Sym{Sym}$In order to define Heegaard Floer Homology for a connected, closed, oriented 3 manifold, we fix a generic path of nearly symmetric almost complex structure $J_s$ over $\...
Ilknur 's user avatar
6 votes
1 answer
741 views

Intuition about bubbling off a ghost bubble

I'm trying to improve my intuition about the bubbling phenomenon for $J$-holomorphic curves $\Sigma \to (M,\omega)$, where $\Sigma$ is a compact Riemann surface with possibly boundary. I assume that ...
Riccardo's user avatar
  • 2,018
6 votes
0 answers
208 views

Does this pseudo-holomorphic triangle contribute to the product $\mu_2$ in Lagrangian Floer cohomology?

I'm computing the product map $$\mu_2 : CF(L_0,V)\otimes CF(V,L_1)\to CF(L_0,L_1)$$ in Seidel's exact triangle for this specific case: This is a genus 2 surface, and I color-coded the three (...
Riccardo's user avatar
  • 2,018
6 votes
0 answers
225 views

Is Heegaard-Floer homology the Lagrangian Floer homology of $M=\text{Sym}^g(\Sigma), L_0=\mathbb{T}_{\alpha},L_1=\mathbb{T}_{\beta}$?

Is Heegaard Floer homology the Lagrangian Floer homology of $M=\text{Sym}^g(\Sigma), L_0=\mathbb{T}_{\alpha},L_1=\mathbb{T}_{\beta}$? I am interested in the relationship between the theories ...
contingent's user avatar
6 votes
0 answers
268 views

Computation of the Fredhom index in Floer theory

I have been reading Salamon's lecture notes on Floer homology, and to compute the Fredholm index of operators they use the fact that the spectral flow of $A(s)$ is the Fredholm index. Now in the proof ...
Someone's user avatar
  • 791
6 votes
0 answers
175 views

Composition of coproduct and product in Lagrangian Floer (co)homology

Let's take a Riemann surface $\Sigma$ and three Lagrangians $L_0,L_1,L_2$ in general position. let's assume that we can set up Lagrangian Floer (co)homology - Here I'm being vague because I don't want ...
Riccardo's user avatar
  • 2,018
6 votes
0 answers
332 views

Spectral flow of Dirac operator twisted by instanton

Suppose $E$ is a $SU(2)$-bundle over a closed three manifold $M$ and $S$ is the spinor bundle over $M$. Also assume $D_{A(t)}:\Gamma(S\otimes_{\mathbb c} E)\to \Gamma(S\otimes_{\mathbb c} E)$ is a ...
Gorapada Bera's user avatar
6 votes
0 answers
276 views

Is there an symplectic field theory compactness theorem applicable in the context of Floer cohomology of a symplectomorphism?

Is there any reference in the literature about results regarding symplectic field theory (SFT) compactness for a neck-stretch in the context of Floer homology of a symplectomorphism $\phi \colon (M,\...
Riccardo's user avatar
  • 2,018
6 votes
0 answers
270 views

Unobstructed Lagrangian tori

Let $X$ be a compact symplectic manifold, $U$ a Darboux chart, and $L$ a standard Lagrangian torus in $U$. Is $H^1(L)$ weakly unobstructed in the sense of Fukaya-Oh-Ohta-Ono (that is, does $b \in H^1(...
Chris Woodward's user avatar
5 votes
2 answers
1k views

Heegard diagrams for three-manifolds

I have a basic question about the Heegaard diagrams involved in providing a framework for calculation of Floer-Homology of three-manifolds. Typically such diagrams look like Figure 1 and Figure 2 here ...
user267839's user avatar
  • 5,966
5 votes
1 answer
164 views

Transversality and $C^l$, $C^{\infty}$ spaces of almost complex structures

Recently I have been trying to get a grip on transversality results in Floer homology. That is suppose we the section $\partial_{J,H}: W^{1,p}(u^*(TM))\rightarrow L^{p}(u^*(TM))$ and we want to prove ...
Someone's user avatar
  • 791
5 votes
1 answer
510 views

Invariance of morse homology, doubt in proof in book "Morse Theory and Floer homology"

I am reading the book "Morse theory and Floer Homology" by Michele Audin and Mihai Damian. Now I am reading the proof of the following theorem. Link to the statement of the theorem ...
Luis Carlos 's user avatar
5 votes
2 answers
370 views

Ozsváth-Szabó's contact invariant on the Brieskorn sphere $\Sigma(2,3,6m+1)$

According to Theorem 1.7 of Mark-Tosun's paper, the Brieskorn sphere $\Sigma(2,3,6m+1)$ admits two tight contact structure $\xi_{i}\ (i=0,1)$. They are both Stein fillable and they are contactomorphic ...
user44651's user avatar
  • 1,069
5 votes
2 answers
371 views

Manifold of mappings between $M$ and $N$, with non-compact source $M$

EDIT: Let $M$ and $N$ are two smooth manifold and suppose $N$ is compact but $M$ is not necessarily compact. For my purpose, I just need to consider the case $M=\mathbb R \times S^1$ or $\mathbb R \...
Hang's user avatar
  • 2,789
5 votes
0 answers
98 views

Lagragian floer homology vs homology of $\Omega(L_0,L_1)$

I'm very new to this subject, so apologies for a very naive question and probably many mistakes. Let $M$ be some compact sympletic manifold with $L_0,L_1$ Lagrangian submanifolds which intersects ...
Andy Jiang's user avatar
  • 2,356
5 votes
0 answers
408 views

Is there any known relationship between sutured contact homology and Legendrian contact homology?

On one hand, Colin-Ghiggini-Honda-Hutchings' construction (https://arxiv.org/abs/1004.2942) provides an invariant of a Legendrian $L$ in a closed contact manifold $(M,\xi)$ via the sutured contact ...
Ian Montague's user avatar