Morse theory for the Hofer length functional

Hofer-Zehnder capacity and length minimizing paths in the Hofer norm

We use the criteria of Lalonde and McDuff to determine a new class of examples of length minimizing paths in the group Ham(M). For a compact symplectic manifold M of dimension two or four, we show that a path inHam(M), generated by an autonomous Hamiltonian and starting at the identity, which induces no non-constant closed trajectories of points in M , is length minimizing among all homotopic p...

Hofer–Zehnder capacity and length minimizing Hamiltonian paths

We use the criteria of Lalonde and McDuff to show that a path that is generated by a generic autonomous Hamiltonian is length minimizing with respect to the Hofer norm among all homotopic paths provided that it induces no non-constant closed trajectories in M . This generalizes a result of Hofer for symplectomorphisms of Euclidean space. The proof for general M uses Liu–Tian’s construction of S...

Morse Theory

The Connection Matrix Theory for Morse Decompositions

The connection matrix theory for Morse decompositions is introduced. The connection matrices are matrices of maps between the homology indices of the sets in the Morse decomposition. The connection matrices cover, in a natural way, the homology index braid of the Morse decomposition and provide information about the structure of the Morse decomposition. The existence of connection matrices of M...

Discrete Morse Theory for Filtrations

Acknowledgements Enumerating all the ways in which I am grateful to Konstantin would essentially double the length of this document, so I'll save all that stuff for my autobiography. But I will note here that he was simultaneously patient, engaged, proactive, and – best of all – ruthlessly determined to refine and sculpt all our vague big-picture ideas into digestible and implementable concrete...