Morse theory indomitable

Morse Theory

Morse Theory on Graphs

Let Γ be a finite d-valent graph and G an n-dimensional torus. An " action " of G on Γ is defined by a map which assigns to each oriented edge, e, of Γ, a one-dimensional representation of G (or, alternatively, a weight, αe, in the weight lattice of G. For the assignment, e → αe, to be a schematic description of a " G-action " , these weights have to satisfy certain compatibility conditions: th...

Morse Theory on Meshes

In this report, we discuss two papers that deal with computing Morse function on triangulated manifolds. Axen [1] gives an algorithm for computing Morse function on a triangulated manifold of arbitrary dimension but it not practical because of its space requirement. Hence, he describes an algorithm for computing critical points and their Morse indices for a 2-manifold. Edelsbrunner et al. [2] d...

Linking and Morse Theory

A. In this paper we use Morse theory and the gradient flow of a Morse-Smale function to compute the linking number of a two-component link L in S 3 , by counting the signed number of gradient flow lines passing through each component of L. We will also use three Morse-Smale functions and their gradient flows, to compute Milnor's triple linking number of three-component links by counting ...

Development of Morse Theory

In this paper, we develop Morse theory, which allows us to determine topological information about manifolds using certain real-valued functions defined on the manifolds. We first prove the Morse lemma, which says that, near critical points, such functions can be written in a useful way that gives us topological information. We then show how the homotopy type of the manifold is related to the i...