We prove that the pair-of-pants product on the Floer homology of the cotangent bundle of a compact manifold M corresponds to the Chas-Sullivan loop product on the singular homology of the loop space of M. We also prove related results concerning the Floer homological interpretation of the Pontrjagin product and of the Serre fibration. The techniques include a Fredholm theory for Cauchy-Riemann operators with jumping Lagrangian boundary conditions of conormal type, and a new cobordism argument replacing the standard gluing technique.
We fix an orientation issue which appears in our previous paper about the isomorphism between Floer homology of cotangent bundles and loop space homology. When the second Stiefel-Whitney class of the underlying manifold does not vanish on 2-tori, this isomorphism requires the use of a twisted version of the Floer complex.
We define partial quasi-morphisms on the group of Hamiltonian diffeomorphisms of the cotangent bundle using the spectral invariants in Lagrangian Floer homology with conormal boundary conditions, where the product compatible with the PSS isomorphism and the homological intersection product is lacking.
Consider the cotangent bundle of a closed Riemannian manifold and an almost complex structure close to the one induced by the Riemannian metric. For Hamiltonians which grow for instance quadratically in the fibers outside of a compact set, one can define Floer homology and show that it is naturally isomorphic to singular homology of the free loop space. We review the three isomorphisms constructed by Viterbo (1996), Salamon-Weber (2003) and Abbondandolo-Schwarz (2004). The theory is illustrated by calculating Morse and Floer homology in case of the euclidean n-torus. Applications include exist…
We study the following rigidity problem in symplectic geometry:can one displace a Lagrangian submanifold from a hypersurface? We relate this to the Arnold Chord Conjecture, and introduce a refined question about the existence of relative leaf-wise intersection points, which are the Lagrangian-theoretic analogue of the notion of leaf-wise intersection points defined by Moser. Our tool is Lagrangian Rabinowitz Floer homology, which we define first for Liouville domains and exact Lagrangian submanifolds with Legendrian boundary. We then extend this to the `virtually contact' setting. By means of …
This is the first of a series of papers on foundations of Floer theory. We give an axiomatic treatment of the geometric notion of a semi-infinite cycle. Using this notion, we introduce a bordism version of Floer theory for the cotangent bundle of a compact manifold M. Our construction is geometric and does not require the compactness and gluing results traditionally used to setup Floer theory. Finally, we prove a bordism version of Viterbo's theorem relating Floer bordism of the cotangent bundle to the ordinary bordism groups of the free loop space of M.
Consider the cotangent bundle of a Riemannian manifold $(M,g)$ of dimension 2 or more, endowed with a twisted symplectic structure defined by a closed weakly exact 2-form $σ$ on $M$ whose lift to the universal cover of $M$ admits a bounded primitive. We compute the Rabinowitz Floer homology of energy hypersurfaces $Σ_{k}=H^{-1}(k)$ of mechanical (kinetic energy + potential) Hamiltonians $H$ for the case when the energy value k is greater than the Mane critical value c. Under the stronger condition that k>c_{0}, where c_{0} denotes the strict Mane critical value, Abbondandolo and Schwarz recent…
We construct the vortex Floer homology group $VHF (M,μ;H)$ for an aspherical Hamiltonian $G$-manifold $(M, ω)$ with moment map $μ$ and a class of $G$-invariant Hamiltonian loop $H_t$, following the proposal of [3]. This is a substitute for the ordinary Hamiltonian Floer homology of the symplectic quotient of $M$. We achieve the transversality of the moduli space by the classical perturbation argument instead of the virtual technique, so the homology can be defined over ${\mathbb Z}$ or ${\mathbb Z}_2$.
We consider Floer homology associated to a pair of closed Lagrangian submanifolds that satisfy a monotonicty assumption. If the Lagrangians intersect cleanly we decribe two spectral sequences which help to compute their Floer homology. The spectral sequences are constructed using a Morse-Bott version of Floer homology. We give a full treatment of the theory including orientations.
Consider a classical Hamiltonian H on the cotangent bundle T*M of a closed orientable manifold M, and let L:TM -> R be its Legendre-dual Lagrangian. In a previous paper we constructed an isomorphism Phi from the Morse complex of the Lagrangian action functional which is associated to L to the Floer complex which is determined by H. In this paper we give an explicit construction of a homotopy inverse Psi of Phi. Contrary to other previously defined maps going in the same direction, Psi is an isomorphism at the chain level and preserves the action filtration. Its definition is based on counting …
We define combinatorial Floer homology of a transverse pair of noncontractibe nonisotopic embedded loops in an oriented 2-manifold without boundary, prove that it is invariant under isotopy, and prove that it is isomorphic to the original Lagrangian Floer homology.
This paper extends the definition of Rabinowitz Floer homology to non-compact hypersurfaces. We present a general framework for the construction of Rabinowitz Floer homology in the non-compact setting under suitable compactness assumptions on the periodic orbits and the moduli spaces of Floer trajectories. We introduce a class of hypersurfaces being the level sets of specific Hamiltonians: strongly tentacular Hamiltonians, for which the compactness conditions are satisfied, thus enabling us to define the Rabinowitz Floer homology for this class. Rabinowitz Floer homology in turn serves as a to…
Let (M,ω) be a compact symplectic manifold, and ϕbe a symplectic diffeomorphism on M, we define a Floer-type homology FH_*(ϕ) which is a gen- eralization of Floer homology for symplectic fixed points defined by Dostoglou and Salamon for monotone symplectic manifolds. These homology groups are modules over a suitable Novikov ring and depend only on ϕup to a Hamiltonian isotopy.
In this paper we extend the results of \cite{Plumbing} to calculate Ozsváth-Szabó Floer homology group HF+ for a class of negative-semidefinite plumbings with b_1 = 1.
We define the Floer complex for Hamiltonian orbits on the cotangent bundle of a compact manifold satisfying non-local conormal boundary conditions. We prove that the homology of this chain complex is isomorphic to the singular homology of the natural path space associated to the boundary conditions.
In general, Lagrangian Floer homology - if well-defined - is not isomorphic to singular homology. For arbitrary closed Lagrangian submanifolds a local version of Floer homology is defined in [Flo89, Oh96] which is isomorphic to singular homology. This construction assumes that the involved Hamiltonian function $H$ is sufficiently $C^2$-small and the almost complex structure is sufficiently standard. In this note we develop a new construction of local Floer homology which works for any (compatible) almost complex structure and all Hamiltonian function with Hofer norm less than the minimal (symp…
In this article we address two issues. First, we explore to what extent the techniques of Piunikhin, Salamon and Schwarz in [PSS96] can be carried over to Lagrangian Floer homology. In [PSS96] an isomorphism between Hamiltonian Floer homology and the singular homology is established. In contrast, Lagrangian Floer homology is not isomorphic to the singular homology of the Lagrangian submanifold, in general. Depending on the minimal Maslov number, we construct for certain degrees two homomorphisms between Lagrangian Floer homology and singular homology. In degrees where both maps are defined we …
In this paper, we write down a special Heegaard diagram for a given product three manifold $Σ_g\times S^1$. We use the diagram to compute its perturbed Heegaard Floer homology.
We prove the Arnold-Givental conjecture for a class of Lagrangian submanifolds in Marsden-Weinstein quotients which are fixpoint sets of some antisymplectic involution. For these Lagrangians the Floer homology cannot in general be defined by standard means due to the bubbling phenomenon. To overcome this difficulty we consider moment Floer homology whose boundary operator is defined by counting solutions of the symplectic vortex equations on the strip which have better compactness properties than the original Floer equations.
We define a version of spectral invariant in the vortex Floer theory for a $G$-Hamiltonian manifold $M$. This defines potentially new (partial) symplectic quasi-morphism and quasi-states when $M//G$ is not semi-positive. We also establish a relation between vortex Hamiltonian Floer homology and Woodward's quasimap Floer homology by constructing a closed-open string map between them. This yields applications to study non-displaceability problems of subsets in $M//G$
For an adiscal or monotone regular coisotropic submanifold $N$ of a symplectic manifold I define its Floer homology to be the Floer homology of a certain Lagrangian embedding of $N$. Given a Hamiltonian isotopy $ϕ=(ϕ^t)$ and a suitable almost complex structure, the corresponding Floer chain complex is generated by the $(N,ϕ)$-contractible leafwise fixed points. I also outline the construction of a local Floer homology for an arbitrary closed coisotropic submanifold. Results by Floer and Albers about Lagrangian Floer homology imply lower bounds on the number of leafwise fixed points. This repro…
This is a translation of an article appeared in Japanese in Suugaku 63 (2011), no. 1, 43-66 (MR2790665) and is a survey of Lagrangian Floer homology which the author studies jointly with Y.-G.Oh, H. Ohta, and K. Ono. It also contains some explanation on its relation to (homological) mirror symmetry.
This paper concerns Floer homology for periodic orbits and for a Lagrangian intersection problem on the cotangent bundle of a compact orientable manifold M. The first result is a new uniform estimate for the solutions of the Floer equation, which allows to deal with a larger - and more natural - class of Hamiltonians. The second and main result is a new construction of the isomorphism between the Floer homology and the singular homology of the free loop space of M, in the periodic case, or of the based loop space of M, in the Lagrangian intersection problem. The idea for the construction of su…
For every nontrivial free homotopy class $α$ of loops in every closed connected Riemannian manifold $M$, we prove existence of a noncontractible 1-periodic orbit, for every compactly supported time-dependent Hamiltonian on the open unit cotangent bundle which is sufficiently large over the zero section. The proof shows that the Biran-Polterovich-Salamon capacity is finite for every closed connected Riemannian manifold and every free homotopy class of loops. This implies a dense existence theorem for periodic orbits on level hypersurfaces and, consequently, a refined version of the Weinstein co…
Let M be a closed, connected and oriented 3-manifold. This article is the first of a five part series that constructs an isomorphism between the Heegaard Floer homology groups of M and the corresponding Seiberg-Witten Floer homology groups of M.
Let M be a closed, oriented, n-dimensional manifold. In this paper we describe a spectrum in the sense of homotopy theory, Z(T^*M), whose homology is naturally isomorphic to the Floer homology of the cotangent bundle, T^*M. This Floer homology is taken with respect to a Hamiltonian H: S^1 x T^*M --> R, which is quadratic near infinity. Z(T^*M) is constructed assuming a basic smooth gluing result of J-holomorphic cylinders. This spectrum will have a C.W decomposition with one cell for every periodic solution of the equation defined by the Hamiltonian vector field X_H. Its induced cellular chain…
We prove that the Knot Floer homology group of a fibred knot of genus g in the Alexander grading 1-g is isomorphic to a version of the fixed point Floer homology of an area-preserving representative of the monodromy.
Various Seiberg-Witten Floer cohomologies are defined for a closed, oriented 3-manifold; and if it is the mapping torus of an area-preserving surface automorphism, it has an associated periodic Floer homology as defined by Michael Hutchings. We construct an isomorphism between a certain version of Seiberg-Witten Floer cohomology and the corresponding periodic Floer homology, and describe some immediate consequences.
Knot Floer homology is a knot invariant defined using holomorphic curves. In more recent work, taking cues from bordered Floer homology,the authors described another knot invariant, called "bordered knot Floer homology", which has an explicit algebraic and combinatorial construction. In the present paper, we extend the holomorphic theory to bordered Heegaard diagrams for partial knot projections, and establish a pairing result for gluing such diagrams, in the spirit of the pairing theorem of bordered Floer homology. After making some model calculations, we obtain an identification of a variant…
This is the last of five papers that construct an isomorphism between the Seiberg-Witten Floer homology and the Heegaard Floer homology of a given compact, oriented 3-manifold.
We develop a skein exact sequence for knot Floer homology, involving singular knots. This leads to an explicit, algebraic description of knot Floer homology in terms of a braid projection of the knot.
Using the combinatorial approach to Heegaard Floer homology we obtain a relatively easy formula for computation of hat Heegaard Floer homology for the three-manifold obtained by rational surgery on a knot K inside a homology sphere Y.
This is the fourth of five papers that construct an isomorphism between the Seiberg-Witten Floer homology and the Heegaard Floer homology of a given compact, oriented 3-manifold. The isomorphism is given as a composition of three isomorphisms; the first of these relates a version of embedded contact homology on an an auxillary manifold to the Heegaard Floer homology on the original. The second isomorphism relates the relevant version of the embedded contact homology on the auxilliary manifold with a version of the Seiberg-Witten Floer homology on this same manifold. The third isomorphism relat…
This article is a standalone introduction to sutured Floer homology for graduate students in geometry and topology. It is divided into three parts. The first part is an introductory level exposition of Lagrangian Floer homology. The second part is a construction of Heegaard Floer homology as a special, and slightly modified, case of Lagrangian Floer homology. The third part covers the background on sutured manifolds, the definition of sutured Floer homology, as well as a discussion of its most basic properties and implications (it detects the product, behaves nicely under surface decomposition…
This paper is the sequel to "The equivalence of Heegaard Floer homology and embedded contact homology via open book decompositions I" and is devoted to proving some of the technical parts of the HF=ECH isomorphism.
This article is a survey on the authors' proof of the isomorphism between Heegaard Floer homology and embedded contact homology appeared in This article is a survey on the authors' proof of the isomorphism between Heegaard Floer homology and embedded contact homology appeared in arXiv:1208.1074, arXiv:1208.1077 and arXiv:1208.1526.
We show that if K is a non-trivial knot inside a homology sphere Y, then the rank of knot Floer homology associated with K is strictly bigger than the rank of Heegaard Floer homology of Y.
Knot Floer homology is an invariant for knots discovered by the authors and, independently, Jacob Rasmussen. The discovery of this invariant grew naturally out of studying how a certain three-manifold invariant, Heegaard Floer homology, changes as the three-manifold undergoes Dehn surgery along a knot. Since its original definition, thanks to the contributions of many researchers, knot Floer homology has emerged as a useful tool for studying knots in its own right. We give here a few selected highlights of this theory, and then move on to some new algebraic developments in the computation of k…
We show that the integer homology sphere obtained by splicing two nontrivial knot complements in integer homology sphere L-spaces has Heegaard Floer homology rank strictly greater than one. In particular, splicing the complements of nontrivial knots in the 3-sphere never produces an L-space. The proof uses bordered Floer homology.
We compute the Floer homology of mapping classes which do not have any pseudo-Anosov components in the sense of Thurston's theory of surface diffeomorphisms. The formula for the Floer homology is obtained from a topological separation of fixed points and a separation mechanism for Floer connecting orbits. As examples, we consider the geometric monodromy of isolated plane curve singularities.
Using the combinatorial approach to knot Floer homology, we define an invariant for Legendrian knots in the three-sphere, which takes values in link Floer homology. This invariant can be used to also construct an invariant of transverse knots.
Let $K$ be a null-homologous knot in a three-manifold $Y$. We give a description of the Heegaard Floer homology of integer surgeries on $Y$ along $K$ in terms of the filtered homotopy type of the knot invariant for $K$. As an illustration, we calculate the Heegaard Floer homology groups of non-trivial circle bundles over Riemann surfaces.
Using contact-geometric techniques and sutured Floer homology, we present an alternate formulation of the minus and plus version of knot Floer homology. We further show how natural constructions in the realm of contact geometry give rise to much of the formal structure relating the various versions of Heegaard Floer homology. In addition, to a Legendrian or transverse knot K in a contact manifold (Y,ξ), we associate distinguished classes EHL(K) in the minus-version of knot floer homology and EHIL(K) in the plus version, which are each invariant under Legendrian or transverse isotopies of K. Th…
We explain how to use bordered algebras to compute a version of link Floer homology. As a corollary, we also give a fast computation of the Thuston polytope for links in the three-sphere.
This is a survey of bordered Heegaard Floer homology, an extension of the Heegaard Floer invariant HF-hat to 3-manifolds with boundary. Emphasis is placed on how bordered Heegaard Floer homology can be used for computations.
In this paper we extend the idea of bordered Floer homology to knots and links in $S^3$: Using a specific Heegaard diagram, we construct gluable combinatorial invariants of tangles in $S^3$, $D^3$ and $I\times S^2$. The special case of $S^3$ gives back a stabilized version of knot Floer homology.
Let $K$ denote a knot inside the homology sphere $Y$. The zero-framed longitude of $K$ gives the complement of $K$ in $Y$ the structure of a bordered three-manifold, which may be denoted by $Y(K)$. We compute the quasi-isomorphism type of the bordered Floer complex of $Y(K)$ in terms of the knot Floer complex associated with $K$. As a corollary, we show that if a homology sphere has the same Heegaard Floer homology as $S^3$ it does not contain any incompressible tori. Consequently, if $Y$ is an irreducible homology sphere $L$-space then $Y$ is either $S^3$, or the Poicaré sphere $Σ(2,3,5)$, or…
Link Floer homology is an invariant for links defined using a suitable version of Lagrangian Floer homology. In an earlier paper, this invariant was given a combinatorial description with mod 2 coefficients. In the present paper, we give a self-contained presentation of the basic properties of link Floer homology, including an elementary proof of its invariance. We also fix signs for the differentials, so that the theory is defined with integer coefficients.
