Morse Theoretic Methods In Nonlinear Analysis And In Symplectic Topology

The papers collected in this volume are contributions to the 43rd session of the Seminaire ́ de mathematiques ́ superieures ́ (SMS) on “Morse Theoretic Methods in Nonlinear Analysis and Symplectic Topology.” This session took place at the Universite ́ de Montreal ́ in July 2004 and was a NATO Advanced Study Institute (ASI). The aim of the ASI was to bring together young researchers from various parts of the world and to present to them some of the most signi cant recent advances in these areas. More than 77 mathematicians from 17 countries followed the 12 series of lectures and participated in the lively exchange of ideas. The lectures covered an ample spectrum of subjects which are re ected in the present volume: Morse theory and related techniques in in nite dim- sional spaces, Floer theory and its recent extensions and generalizations, Morse and Floer theory in relation to string topology, generating functions, structure of the group of Hamiltonian di?eomorphisms and related dynamical problems, applications to robotics and many others. We thank all our main speakers for their stimulating lectures and all p- ticipants for creating a friendly atmosphere during the meeting. We also thank Ms. Diane Belanger ́ , our administrative assistant, for her help with the organi- tion and Mr. Andre ́ Montpetit, our technical editor, for his help in the preparation of the volume.

Topological tools in Nonlinear Analysis had a tremendous develop ment during the last few decades. The three main streams of research in this field, Topological Degree, Singularity Theory and Variational Meth ods, have lately become impetuous rivers of scientific investigation. The process is still going on and the achievements in this area are spectacular. A most promising and rapidly developing field of research is the study of the role that symmetries play in nonlinear problems. Symmetries appear in a quite natural way in many problems in physics and in differential or symplectic geometry, such as closed orbits for autonomous Hamiltonian systems, configurations of symmetric elastic plates under pressure, Hopf Bifurcation, Taylor vortices, convective motions of fluids, oscillations of chemical reactions, etc . . . Some of these problems have been tackled recently by different techniques using equivariant versions of Degree, Singularity and Variations. The main purpose of the present volume is to give a survey of some of the most significant achievements obtained by topological methods in Nonlinear Analysis during the last two-three decades. The survey articles presented here reflect the personal taste and points of view of the authors (all of them well-known and distinguished specialists in their own fields) on the subject matter. A common feature of these papers is that of start ing with an historical introductory background of the different disciplines under consideration and climbing up to the heights of the most recent re sults.

This volume, in honor of Yakov Eliashberg, gives a panorama of some of the most fascinating recent developments in symplectic, contact and gauge theories. It contains research papers aimed at experts, as well as a series of skillfully written surveys accessible for a broad geometrically oriented readership from the graduate level onwards. This collection will serve as an enduring source of information and ideas for those who want to enter this exciting area as well as for experts.

The first part of a two-volume set offering a systematic explanation of symplectic topology. This volume covers the basic materials of Hamiltonian dynamics and symplectic geometry.

Over the last number of years powerful new methods in analysis and topology have led to the development of the modern global theory of symplectic topology, including several striking and important results. This new third edition of a classic book in the feild includes updates and new material to bring the material right up-to-date.

This is a two-volume series research monograph on the general Lagrangian Floer theory and on the accompanying homological algebra of filtered $A_\infty$-algebras. This book provides the most important step towards a rigorous foundation of the Fukaya category in general context. In Volume I, general deformation theory of the Floer cohomology is developed in both algebraic and geometric contexts. An essentially self-contained homotopy theory of filtered $A_\infty$ algebras and $A_\infty$ bimodules and applications of their obstruction-deformation theory to the Lagrangian Floer theory are presented. Volume II contains detailed studies of two of the main points of the foundation of the theory: transversality and orientation. The study of transversality is based on the virtual fundamental chain techniques (the theory of Kuranishi structures and their multisections) and chain level intersection theories. A detailed analysis comparing the orientations of the moduli spaces and their fiber products is carried out. A self-contained account of the general theory of Kuranishi structures is also included in the appendix of this volume.

This volume is a collection of articles presented at the Workshop for Nonlinear Analysis held in João Pessoa, Brazil, in September 2012. The influence of Bernhard Ruf, to whom this volume is dedicated on the occasion of his 60th birthday, is perceptible throughout the collection by the choice of themes and techniques. The many contributors consider modern topics in the calculus of variations, topological methods and regularity analysis, together with novel applications of partial differential equations. In keeping with the tradition of the workshop, emphasis is given to elliptic operators inserted in different contexts, both theoretical and applied. Topics include semi-linear and fully nonlinear equations and systems with different nonlinearities, at sub- and supercritical exponents, with spectral interactions of Ambrosetti-Prodi type. Also treated are analytic aspects as well as applications such as diffusion problems in mathematical genetics and finance and evolution equations related to electromechanical devices.

In this paper the authors first develop various enhancements of the theory of spectral invariants of Hamiltonian Floer homology and of Entov-Polterovich theory of spectral symplectic quasi-states and quasi-morphisms by incorporating bulk deformations, i.e., deformations by ambient cycles of symplectic manifolds, of the Floer homology and quantum cohomology. Essentially the same kind of construction is independently carried out by Usher in a slightly less general context. Then the authors explore various applications of these enhancements to the symplectic topology, especially new construction of symplectic quasi-states, quasi-morphisms and new Lagrangian intersection results on toric and non-toric manifolds. The most novel part of this paper is its use of open-closed Gromov-Witten-Floer theory and its variant involving closed orbits of periodic Hamiltonian system to connect spectral invariants (with bulk deformation), symplectic quasi-states, quasi-morphism to the Lagrangian Floer theory (with bulk deformation). The authors use this open-closed Gromov-Witten-Floer theory to produce new examples. Using the calculation of Lagrangian Floer cohomology with bulk, they produce examples of compact symplectic manifolds which admits uncountably many independent quasi-morphisms . They also obtain a new intersection result for the Lagrangian submanifold in .