Let $ \mathfrak{M}$ be the moduli space of torsion free $ G_2$ structures on a compact 7-manifold $ M$, and let $ \mathfrak{M}_1 \subset \mathfrak{M}$ be the $ G_2$ structures with volume($M$) $=1$. The cohomology map $ π^3: \mathfrak{M} \to H^3(M, R)$ is known to be a local diffeomorphism. It is proved that every nonzero element of $ H^4(M, R) = H^3(M, R)^*$ is a Morse function on $ \mathfrak{M}_1 $ when composed with $ π^3$. When dim $H^3(M, R) = 2$, the result in particular implies $ π^3$ is one to one on each connected component of $ \mathfrak{M}$. Considering the first Pontryagin class $ p_1(M) \in H^4(M, R)$, we formulate a compactness conjecture on the set of $ G_2$ structures of volume($M$) $=1$ with bounded $L^2$ norm of curvature, which would imply that every connected component of $ \mathfrak{M}$ is contractible. We also observe the locus $ π^3(\mathfrak{M}_1) \subset H^3(M, R)$ is a hyperbolic affine sphere if the volume of the torus $ H^3(M, R) / H^3(M, Z)$ is constant on $ \mathfrak{M}_1$.
We generalize Cohen & Jones & Segal's flow category whose objects are the critical points of a Morse function and whose morphisms are the Morse moduli spaces between the critical points to an n-category. The n-category construction involves repeatedly doing Morse theory on Morse moduli spaces for which we have to construct a class of suitable Morse functions. It turns out to be an `almost strict' n-category, i.e. it is a strict n-category `up to canonical isomorphisms'.
We compute the Betti numbers of the moduli space of rank 3 parabolic Higgs bundles, using Morse theory. A key point is that certain critical submanifolds of the Morse function can be identified with moduli spaces of parabolic triples. These moduli spaces come in families depending on a real parameter and we study their variation with this parameter.
We use the Yang-Mills gradient flow on the space of connections over a closed Riemann surface to construct a Morse-Bott chain complex. The chain groups are generated by Yang-Mills connections. The boundary operator is defined by counting the elements of appropriately defined moduli spaces of Yang-Mills gradient flow lines that converge asymptotically to Yang-Mills connections.
It is known that there is a bijection between the perturbed closed geodesics, below a given energy level, on the moduli space of flat connections M and families of perturbed Yang-Mills connections depending on a small parameter. In this paper we study the heat flow on the loop space on M and the Yang-Mills L^2-flows for a 3-manifold N with partial rescaled metrics. Our main result is that the bounded Morse homology of the loop space on M is isomorphic to the bounded Morse homologies of the connections space of N.
The surgery technique of Gromov and Lawson may be used to construct families of positive scalar curvature metrics which are parameterised by Morse functions. This has played an important role in the study of the space of metrics of positive scalar curvature on a smooth manifold and its corresponding moduli spaces. In this paper, we extend this technique to work for families of generalised Morse functions, i.e. smooth functions with both Morse and birth-death singularities.
The Bialynicki-Birula decomposition of the space of lambda-connections restricts to the Morse stratification on the moduli space of Higgs bundles and to the partial oper stratification on the de Rham moduli space of holomorphic connections. For both the Morse and partial oper stratifications, every stratum is a holomorphic Lagrangian fibration over a component of the space of complex variations of Hodge structure. In this paper, we generalize known results for the Hitchin section and the space of opers to arbitrary strata. These include the following: a biholomorphic identification of the fibe…
In this work we study the space S(n) of positively oriented, simple n-gons with labeled vertices up to oriented similarity and M(n) the moduli space of simple n-gons as a quotient of S(n). We give a local description of S(n) and M(n) around the regular n-gon and describe completely the two spaces when n = 4 using a topological Morse function. We also provide an asymptotic description of the compactifications of S(4) and M(4) up to a complicated set at their boundaries.
We generalize the classical Beauville-Narasimhan-Ramanan correspondence to the case of parabolic Higgs bundles with regular singularities and Higgs $V$-bundles. Using this correspondence along with Bott-Morse theoretic techniques we provide an exact component count for moduli spaces of maximal parabolic $\text{Sp}\left( 2n,\mathbb{R} \right)$-Higgs bundles with fixed parabolic structure.
In an earlier work, we constructed the almost strict Morse $n$-category $\mathcal X$ which extends Cohen $\&$ Jones $\&$ Segal's flow category. In this article, we define two other almost strict $n$-categories $\mathcal V$ and $\mathcal W$ where $\mathcal V$ is based on homomorphisms between real vector spaces and $\mathcal W$ consists of tuples of positive integers. The Morse index and the dimension of the Morse moduli spaces give rise to almost strict $n$-category functors $\mathcal F : \mathcal X \to \mathcal V$ and $\mathcal G : \mathcal X \to \mathcal W$.
If we consider the moduli space of flat connections of a non trivial principal SO(3)-bundle over a surface, then we can define a map from the set of perturbed closed geodesics, below a given energy level, into families of perturbed Yang-Mills connections depending on a small parameter. In this paper we show that this map is a bijection and maps perturbed geodesics into perturbed Yang-Mills connections with the same Morse index.
Using the $L^2$-norm of the Higgs field as a Morse function, we count the number of connected components of the moduli space of parabolic $U(p,q)$-Higgs bundles over a Riemann surface with a finite number of marked points, under certain genericity conditions on the parabolic structure. This space is homeomorphic to the moduli space of representations of the fundamental group of the punctured surface in $U(p,q)$, with fixed compact holonomy classes around the marked points. We apply our results to the study of representations of the fundamental group of elliptic surfaces of general type.
Using the Morse-theoretic methods introduced by Hitchin, we prove that the moduli space of $\SO_0(1,n)$-Higgs bundles when $n$ is odd has two connected components.
We calculate certain homotopy groups of the moduli spaces for representations of a compact oriented surface in the Lie groups GL(n,C) and U(p,q). Our approach relies on the interpretation of these representations in terms of Higgs bundles and uses Bott--Morse theory on the corresponding moduli spaces.
Inspired by Wilkin's work [23, 24] on Morse theory for the moduli space of Higgs bundles, we study the moduli space of gauged holomorphic maps by a heat flow approach in the spirit of Atiyah and Bott in a series of papers. In this paper, applying the method of Hong [9], we establish the global existence of smooth solutions of the gradient ow equations of the vortex functional over a compact Kahler manifold.
This thesis contains work which appeared in several papers. Additionally to the results in the papers it contains a detailed introduction and some further proofs and remarks. The dissertation gives a description of the topology and symplectic and algebraic geometry of Hitchin's hyperkaehler moduli space M of rank 2 Higgs bundles with fixed determinant of odd degree over a fixed Riemann surface. After the long introduction it describes a compactification of M in great detail, using symplectic cutting (math.AG/9804083). Examining the downward Morse flow of a natural circle action on M it shows t…
We develop techniques for computing the integer valued SU(3) Casson invariant. Our method involves resolving the singularities in the flat moduli space using a twisting perturbation and analyzing its effect on the topology of the perturbed flat moduli space. These techniques, together with Bott-Morse theory and the splitting principle for spectral flow, are applied to calculate the invariant for all Brieskorn homology spheres.
We show that a Bott-Morse foliation in dimension 3 admits a linear, singular, Poisson structure of rank 2 with Bott-Morse singularities. We provide the Poisson bivectors for each type of singular component, and compute the symplectic forms of the characteristic distribution.
Higgs bundles and non-abelian Hodge theory provide holomorphic methods with which to study the moduli spaces of surface group representations in a reductive Lie group G. In this paper we survey the case in which G is the isometry group of a classical Hermitian symmetric space of non-compact type. Using Morse theory on the moduli spaces of Higgs bundles, we compute the number of connected components of the moduli space of representations with maximal Toledo invariant.
We give elementary constructions of manifold with corner structures and associative gluing maps on compactifications of spaces of infinite, half infinite, and finite Morse flow lines.
We study the structure of the smooth manifold which is defined as the intersection of a stable manifold and an unstable manifold for an invariant Morse-Smale function.
In the Stiefel manifold $X_{n,k}$, we replace Frankel linear height function by a quadratic one. We prove this is still a Morse-Bott function, whose structure of critical levels presents a dichotomy according to the sign of $n-2k$. The critical submanifolds are no longer Grassmannians but total spaces of fibrations of basis a product of two Grassmannians. We explicitly integrate the gradient flow.
We define a new one form H^A based on the second fundamental tensor H^abA, the Gauss-Bonnet-Chern form can be novelly expressed with this one-form. Using the phi-mapping theory we find that the Gauss-Bonnet-Chern density can be expressed in terms of the delta-function and the relationship between the Gauss-Bonnet-Chern theorem and Hopf-Poincare theorem is given straightforwardly. The topological current of the Gauss-Bonnet-Chern theorem and its topological structure are discussed in details. At last, the Morse theory formula of the Euler characteristic is generalized.
This is a survey article on the recent progress in understanding the Strominger-Yau-Zaslow (SYZ) mirror symmetry conjecture, especially on the effect of quantum corrections, via Witten-Morse theory using the program first depicted by Fukaya to obtain an explicit relation between differential geometric operations, e.g. wedge product of differential forms and Lie-bracket of the Kodaira-Spencer complexes, with combinatorial structures, e.g. Morse $A_\infty$ structures and scattering diagrams.
A locally conformally Kahler (LCK) manifold is a complex manifold admitting a Kahler covering, with the monodromy acting on this covering by homotheties. We define three cohomology invariants, the Lee class, the Morse-Novikov class, and the Bott-Chern class, of an LCK-structure. These invariants together play the same role as the Kahler class in Kahler geometry. If these classes for two LCK-structures coincide, the difference between these structures can be expressed by a smooth potential, similar to the Kahler case. We show that the Morse-Novikov class and the Bott-Chern class of a Vaisman ma…
Let f be a smooth Morse function on an infinite dimensional separable Hilbert manifold, all of whose critical points have infinite Morse index and co-index. For any critical point x choose an integer a(x) arbitrarily. Then there exists a Riemannian structure on M such that the corresponding gradient flow of f has the following property: for any pair of critical points x,y, the unstable manifold of x and the stable manifold of y have a transverse intersection of dimension a(x)-a(y).
Using the L^2 norm of the Higgs field as a Morse function, we study the moduli spaces of U(p,q)-Higgs bundles over a Riemann surface. We require that the genus of the surface be at least two, but place no constraints on (p,q). A key step is the identification of the function's local minima as moduli spaces of holomorphic triples. In a companion paper "Moduli spaces of holomorphic triples over compact Riemann surfaces" (math.AG/0211428) we prove that these moduli spaces of triples are non-empty and irreducible. Because of the relation between flat bundles and fundamental group representations, …
We use closed geodesics to construct and compute Bott-type Morse homology groups for the energy functional on the loop space of flat $n$-dimensional tori, $n\ge 1$, and Bott-type Floer cohomology groups for their cotangent bundles equipped with the natural symplectic structure. Both objects are isomorpic to the singular homology of the loop space. In an appendix we perturb the equations in order to eliminate degeneracies and to get to a situation with nondegenerate critical points only. The (co)homology groups turn out to be invariant under the perturbation.
Given, in the Lagrangian torus fibration $R^4\to R^2$, a Lagrangian submanifold $L$, endowed with a trivial flat connection, the corresponding mirror object is constructed on the dual fibration by means of a family of Morse homologies associated to the generating function of $L$, and it is provided with a holomorphic structure. Morse homology, however, is not defined along the caustic $C$ of $L$ or along the bifurcation locus $B$, where the family does not satisfy the Morse-Smale condition. The holomorphic structure is extended to the subset $C\cup B$, except cusps, yielding the so called quan…
For the moduli space of Higgs bundles on a Riemann surface of positive genus, critical points of the natural Morse-Bott function lie along the nilpotent cone of the Hitchin fibration and are representations of $\mbox{A}$-type quivers in a twisted category of holomorphic bundles. The critical points that globally minimize the function are representations of $\mbox{A}_1$. For twisted Higgs bundles on the projective line, the quiver describing the bottom of the cone is more complicated. We determine it here. We show that the moduli space is topologically connected whenever the rank and degree are…
