Dynamical and topological aspects of Lyapunov graphs (Q1773856): Difference between revisions

From the authors' introduction: It is well known that the interaction among different areas very often produces interesting results. In this well-written survey the authors use network flow theory techniques to obtain topological dynamical system results for Lyapunov graphs. This article is written in a discursive style and it is a compendium of [Ergodic Theory Dyn. Syst. 23, No. 1, 1--58 (2003; Zbl 1140.37310), Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 357, No. 10, 4091--4129 (2005; Zbl 1134.37316) and Ergodic Theory Dyn. Syst. 25, No. 1, 1--39 (2005; Zbl 1084.37013)], where the results collected below are proved in all dimensions. As often is the case in this area, odd, 0 mod 4 and 2 mod 4 cases need to be analyzed separately. The big picture is the same but each case entails the consideration of myriad smaller details. In order to spare the reader the tiresome repetition of similar arguments the authors chose to illustrate the results in the simpler odd dimensional case. Lyapunov graphs carry dynamical information of gradient-like flows as well as topological information of its phase space which is taken to be a closed \(n\)-manifold. The main results concern dynamical and topological properties of Lyapunov graphs. The first result below mimics the continuation results for gradient flows [see \textit{J. F. Reineck}, Duke Math. J. 64, No. 2, 261--269 (1991; Zbl 0753.58016)], with a more constructive approach and uses completely different techniques in the proof. Roughly, an abstract Lyapunov graph may represent a very complicated gradient-like flow and Theorem 1 continues it to an abstract Lyapunov graph of Morse type which in turn represents a Morse flow. Theorem 1 (Continuation). Consider an abstract Lyapunov graph \(L(h_0,\dots, h_n, \kappa)\). It admits continuations to abstract Lyapunov graphs of Morse type with cycle rank greater or equal to \(\kappa\) if and only if it satisfies the Poincaré-Hopf inequalities at each vertex, where \(\kappa \leq \min\{h_1- (h_0-1), h_n-1-(h_n-1)\}\). Moreover, the number of possible continuations is obtained. The second result partially addresses a difficult question which has been answered in some cases, which is that of the realization of an abstract Lyapunov graph as a flow on some manifold. Morse's classical result asserts that if an abstract dynamical data list does not satisfy the Morse inequalities for a closed manifold \(M\) then there exists no flow on \(M\) with this data. It is important to observe that an abstract Lyapunov graph carries dynamical data but carries no information of the manifold it is realizable on. In other words, the Morse inequalities cannot be used to verify the realizability or not of this dynamical data. The authors present the Poincaré-Hopf inequalities for closed manifolds which are verifiable for the dynamical data of an abstract Lyapunov graph. As a consequence of the theorem below, if the graph does not satisfy the Poincaré-Hopf inequalities, it will not satisfy the Morse inequalities for any choice of Betti number vector and hence one can screen out Lyapunov graphs which cannot be realized as a continuous flow on any manifold. Theorem 2 (Equivalence). Given an abstract Lyapunov graph \(L(h_0,\dots, h_n, \kappa)\), it satisfies the Poincaré-Hopf inequalities for closed manifolds if and only if it satisfies the Morse inequalities and the inequality \(\gamma_1\geq \kappa\) for some Betti number vector \((\gamma_0,\dots,\gamma_n)\). This article is divided into the following sections. Section 2 is background material. Section 3 presents the Poincaré-Hopf inequalities with connectivity parameter \(\kappa\) and the Morse inequalities. Section 4 presents the explosion algorithm with cycles which originates a linear \(h^{cd}_\kappa\)-system. The nonnegative solutions of this system correspond to the different continuations of the graph. In Section 5, a sketch of the proof of the continuation theorem 1 for abstract Lyapunov graphs in the presence of cycles using network flow theory is given. In Section 6 the main techniques involved in the proof of the equivalence theorem are shown. In Section 7 we describe properties of the Morse polytope considering the connectivity parameter \(\kappa\).