We prove a semi-Riemannian version of the celebrated Morse Index Theorem for geodesics in semi-Riemannian manifolds; we consider the general case of both endpoints variable on two submanifolds. The key role of the theory is played by the notion of the {\em Maslov index} of a semi-Riemannian geodesic, which is a homological invariant and it substitutes the notion of geometric index in Riemannian geometry. Under generic circumstances, the Maslov index of a geodesic is computed as a sort of {\em algebraic count} of the conjugate points along the geodesic. For non positive definite metrics the index of the index form is always infinite; in this paper we prove that the space of all variations of a given geodesic has a {\em natural} splitting into two infinite dimensional subspaces, and the Maslov index is given by the difference of the index and the coindex of the restriction of the index form to these subspaces. In the case of variable endpoints, two suitable correction terms, defined in terms of the endmanifolds, are added to the equality. Using appropriate change of variables, the theory is entirely extended to the more general case of {\em symplectic differential systems}, that can be obtained as linearizations of the Hamilton equations.
The Witten deformation associated to a Morse function on a closed Riemannian manifold, via Rellich-Kato theorem, relates analytically the spectral package of the Riemannian manifold (eigenvalues and eigenforms) to the Morse complex defined by the pair (Morse function, Riemannian metric) coupled with the "multivariable harmonic oscillators" associated to the critical points of the Morse function. We survey this relation and discuss some implications, including the finite subset of the spectral package referred to as the "virtually small spectral package" .
We show that the Morse index of a closed minimal hypersurface in a four-dimensional Riemannian manifold cannot be bound in terms of the volume and the topological invariants of the hypersurface itself by presenting a method for constructing Riemannian metrics on S^4 that admit embedded minimal hyperspheres of uniformly bounded volume and arbitrarily large Morse index. The phenomena we exhibit are in striking contrast with the three-dimensional compactness results by Choi-Schoen.
In this paper we find sufficient conditions for the vanishing of the Morse-Novikov cohomology on Riemannian foliations. We work out a Bochner technique for twisted cohomological complexes, obtaining corresponding vanishing results. Also, we generalize for our setting vanishing results from the case of closed Riemannian manifolds. Several examples are presented, along with applications in the context of l.c.s. and l.c.K. foliations.
In this article, we first consider the $L^{2}$ \textit{Morse-Novikov cohomology} on a complete Riemannian manifold $M$ equipped with a parallel $1$-form which includes Vaisman manifold. Based on a vanishing theorem of $L^{2}$ \textit{Morse-Novikov cohomology}, we prove that the $L^{2}$-harmonic forms on $M$ are identically zero.
In this paper, we present a sufficient condition for finite Morse index of complete properly self-shrinkers. We prove that a complete properly embedded self-shrinker in $\mathbb{R}^{n+1}$ with finite asymptotically conical ends or asymptotically cylindrical ends must have finite Morse index. Moreover, as an application of this result, we show that a complete properly embedded self-shrinker in $\mathbb{R}^3$ with finite genus has finite Morse index.
We show that in a closed 3-manifold with a generic metric of positive Ricci curvature, there are minimal surfaces of arbitrary large Morse index, which partially confirms a conjecture by F. Marques and A. Neves. We prove this by analyzing the lamination structure of the limit of minimal surfaces with bounded Morse index.
The min-max construction of minimal spheres using harmonic replacement is introduced by Colding and Minicozzi and generalized by Zhou to conformal harmonic torus. We prove that the Morse index of the min-max conformal harmonic torus is bounded by one.
Given a closed manifold of dimension at least three, with non trivial homotopy group π_3(M) and a generic metric, we prove that there is a finite collection of harmonic spheres with Morse index bound one, with sum of their energies realizes a geometric invariant width.
We prove that any smooth harmonic map from $S^3$ into $S^2$ of Morse index less or equal than $4$ has to be an harmonic morphism, that is the successive composition of an isometry of $S^3$, the Hopf fibration and an holomorphic map from ${\mathbb C}P^1$ into itself.
Main theorem of this paper states that Floer cohomology groups in a Hilbert space are isomorphic to the cohomological Conley Index. It is also shown that calculating cohomological Conley Index does not require finite dimensional approximations of the vector field. Further directions are discussed.
We develop a bubble-compactness theory for embedded CMC hypersurfaces with bounded index and area inside closed Riemannian manifolds in low dimensions. In particular we show that convergence always occurs with multiplicity one, which implies that the minimal blow-ups (bubbles) are all catenoids. We also provide bounds on the area of separating CMC surfaces of bounded (Morse) index and use this, together with the previous results, to bound their genus.
Inspired by work of Ejiri-Micallef on closed minimal surfaces, we compare the energy index and the area index of a free-boundary minimal surface of a Riemannian manifold with boundary, and show that the area index is controlled from above by the area and the topology of the surface. Combining these results with work of Fraser-Li, we conclude that the area index of a free-boundary minimal surface in a convex domain of Euclidean three-space, is bounded from above by a linear function of its genus and its number of boundary components. We also prove index bounds for submanifolds of higher dimensi…
In the previous work, the first author established an algorithm to compute the Morse index and the nullity of an $n$-periodic minimal surface in $\mathbb{R}^n$. In fact, the Morse index can be translated into the number of negative eigenvalues of a real symmetric matrix and the nullity can be translated into the number of zero-eigenvalue of a Hermitian matrix. The two key matrices consist of periods of the abelian differentials of the second kind on a minimal surface, and the signature of the Hermitian matrix gives a new invariant of a minimal surface. On the other hand, H family, rPD family, …
By extending and generalising previous work by Ros and Savo, we describe a method to show that the Morse index of every closed minimal hypersurface on certain positively curved ambient manifolds is bounded from below by a linear function of its first Betti number. The technique is flexible enough to prove that such a relation between the index and the topology of minimal hypersurfaces holds, for example, on all compact rank one symmetric spaces, on products of the circle with spheres of arbitrary dimension and on suitably pinched submanifolds of the Euclidean spaces. These results confirm a ge…
A celebrated result due to Poincaré affirms that a closed non-degenerate minimizing geodesic $γ$ on an oriented Riemannian surface is hyperbolic. Starting from this classical theorem, our first main result is a general instability criterion for timelike and spacelike closed semi-Riemannian geodesics on a (non)oriented manifold. A key role is played by the spectral index, a new topological invariant that we define through the spectral flow (being the Morse index truly infinite) of a path of selfadjoint Fredholm operators. A major step in the proof of this result is a em new spectral flow formul…
Given a compact 3-manifold N without boundary, we prove that for a bumpy metric of positive scalar curvature the space of minimal surfaces having a uniform upper bound on the Morse index is always finite unless the manifold itself contains an embedded minimal RP^2. In particular, we derive a generic finiteness result whenever N does not contain a copy of RP^3 in its prime decomposition. We discuss the obstructions to any further generalization of such a result. When the metric g is required to be (scalar positive and) strongly bumpy (meaning that all closed, immersed minimal surfaces do not ha…
This is the second of a series of two papers where we construct embedded Willmore tori with small area constraint in Riemannian three-manifolds. In both papers the construction relies on a Lyapunov-Schmidt reduction, the difficulty being the Möbius degeneration of the tori. In the first paper the construction was performed via minimization, here by Morse Theory; to this aim we establish new geometric expansions of the derivative of the Willmore functional on exponentiated small Clifford tori degenerating, under the action of the Möbius group, to small geodesic spheres with a small handle. By u…
We develop a general method to compute the Morse index of branched Willmore spheres and show that the Morse index is equal to the index of certain matrix whose dimension is equal to the number of ends of the dual minimal surface. As a corollary, we find that for all immersed Willmore spheres $\vecΦ:S^2\rightarrow \mathbb{R}^3$ such that $W(\vecΦ)=4πn$, we have $\mathrm{Ind}_{W}(\vecΦ)\leq n-1$
In this article, we study conjectures of Sandon on the minimal number of translated points in the special case of the unit tangent bundle of a Riemannian manifold. We restrict ourselves to contactomorphisms of $SM$ that lift diffeomorphisms of $M$ homotopic to identity. We prove that there exist sequences $(p_n,t_n)$ where $p_n$ is a translated point of time-shift $t_n$ with $t_n\to+\infty$ for a large class of manifolds. We also prove Morse estimates on the number of translated points in the case of Zoll Riemannian manifolds.
The Min-max Theory for the area functional, started by Almgren in the early 1960s and greatly improved by Pitts in 1981, was left incomplete because it gave no Morse index estimate for the min-max minimal hypersurface. We advance the theory further and prove the first general Morse index bounds for minimal hypersurfaces produced by it. We also settle the multiplicity problem for the classical case of one-parameter sweepouts.
For a Morse function on a closed orientable Riemannian manifold one introduces the {\it virtually small spectral package} an analytic object consisting of a finite number of analytic quantities derived from the pair, {\it Riemannian metric, Morse function\} which, in principle, can be calculated. One shows that they determine the {\it Torsion } of the underlying space, a parallel to the result that the dimensions of the spaces of harmonic forms calculate the {\it Euler-Poincaré characteristic} of the underlying space and extends the {\it Poincaré Duality} between harmonic forms and between Bet…
