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The goal of this paper is to give an exposition of the general polyfold theory, developed by Hofer, Wysocki and Zehnder since 2004, accessible to a reader familiar with the general ideas of elliptic differential equations, compactification of moduli, and Banach spaces. The applications include Gromov-Witten theory, Floer homology, symplectic field theory, and the point is to develop an abstract nonlinear Fredholm theory that uniformly resolves the issues of compactness, convergence to singular curves, and transversality. The end result is a theory with an abstract perturbation scheme coupled with the implicit function theorem, which removes the need for most of the ad hoc analytic constructions that currently fill the literature. The polyfold theory is expected to interpret any compactified moduli space as the zero set of a ``scale smooth'' Fredholm section \(\sigma\) in a ``polyfold bundle''. Once the compactness of \(\sigma^{-1}(0)\) is established the theory provides arbitrarily small perturbations \(p\) such that \(\sigma+p\) is transverse to the zero section, the zero set of the perturbed section is a compact finite dimensional manifold (or orbifold when discrete automorphisms are present) with boundary/corners, and the zero sets of different perturbations are cobordant. The paper is split into two parts. The first, ``philosophical'', part presents the key ideas informally, using the gradient flow trajectories of the finite dimensional Morse theory as toy examples. The second, ``technical'', part streamlines formal definitions and key theorems to get to the abstract transversality result quickly. For proofs the reader is mostly referred to the original sources. There are two main issues that are addressed by the polyfold construction. First, the reparametrization action of automorphisms on infinite dimensional spaces of maps is not differentiable in any familiar Banach topology. In applications this forces one to look for equivariant transverse perturbations before taking the reparametrization quotient, which can only be found under severe restrictions on allowed maps, like injectivity. The polyfold theory instead uses a notion of differentiability in a Banach scale, which imparts the scale smooth structure to the space of re\-para\-metri\-zation-equivalence classes of maps, and interprets the Cauchy-Riemann operator as a smooth section over this space. Second, the compactification of the moduli usually requires maps over singular domains, which precludes a description of the compactified moduli as a subset of a single Banach manifold of maps. The polyfold theory introduces the notion of sc-retract (formalizing the pregluing construction), which allows one to build ambient spaces with neighborhoods of singular maps containing both singular and regular maps. Thus, part of the gluing construction is formalized by a Fredholm condition on the Cauchy-Riemann operator at singular maps, and the other parts are replaced by an implicit function theorem for Fredholm sections over sc-retracts.
Property / review text: The goal of this paper is to give an exposition of the general polyfold theory, developed by Hofer, Wysocki and Zehnder since 2004, accessible to a reader familiar with the general ideas of elliptic differential equations, compactification of moduli, and Banach spaces. The applications include Gromov-Witten theory, Floer homology, symplectic field theory, and the point is to develop an abstract nonlinear Fredholm theory that uniformly resolves the issues of compactness, convergence to singular curves, and transversality. The end result is a theory with an abstract perturbation scheme coupled with the implicit function theorem, which removes the need for most of the ad hoc analytic constructions that currently fill the literature. The polyfold theory is expected to interpret any compactified moduli space as the zero set of a ``scale smooth'' Fredholm section \(\sigma\) in a ``polyfold bundle''. Once the compactness of \(\sigma^{-1}(0)\) is established the theory provides arbitrarily small perturbations \(p\) such that \(\sigma+p\) is transverse to the zero section, the zero set of the perturbed section is a compact finite dimensional manifold (or orbifold when discrete automorphisms are present) with boundary/corners, and the zero sets of different perturbations are cobordant. The paper is split into two parts. The first, ``philosophical'', part presents the key ideas informally, using the gradient flow trajectories of the finite dimensional Morse theory as toy examples. The second, ``technical'', part streamlines formal definitions and key theorems to get to the abstract transversality result quickly. For proofs the reader is mostly referred to the original sources. There are two main issues that are addressed by the polyfold construction. First, the reparametrization action of automorphisms on infinite dimensional spaces of maps is not differentiable in any familiar Banach topology. In applications this forces one to look for equivariant transverse perturbations before taking the reparametrization quotient, which can only be found under severe restrictions on allowed maps, like injectivity. The polyfold theory instead uses a notion of differentiability in a Banach scale, which imparts the scale smooth structure to the space of re\-para\-metri\-zation-equivalence classes of maps, and interprets the Cauchy-Riemann operator as a smooth section over this space. Second, the compactification of the moduli usually requires maps over singular domains, which precludes a description of the compactified moduli as a subset of a single Banach manifold of maps. The polyfold theory introduces the notion of sc-retract (formalizing the pregluing construction), which allows one to build ambient spaces with neighborhoods of singular maps containing both singular and regular maps. Thus, part of the gluing construction is formalized by a Fredholm condition on the Cauchy-Riemann operator at singular maps, and the other parts are replaced by an implicit function theorem for Fredholm sections over sc-retracts. / rank
 
Normal rank
Property / reviewed by
 
Property / reviewed by: Sergiy Koshkin / rank
 
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Property / Mathematics Subject Classification ID
 
Property / Mathematics Subject Classification ID: 58D27 / rank
 
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Property / Mathematics Subject Classification ID
 
Property / Mathematics Subject Classification ID: 58C15 / rank
 
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Property / Mathematics Subject Classification ID
 
Property / Mathematics Subject Classification ID: 58B15 / rank
 
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Property / zbMATH DE Number
 
Property / zbMATH DE Number: 6669850 / rank
 
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Property / zbMATH Keywords
 
compactification of moduli
Property / zbMATH Keywords: compactification of moduli / rank
 
Normal rank
Property / zbMATH Keywords
 
Gromov-Witten theory
Property / zbMATH Keywords: Gromov-Witten theory / rank
 
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Property / zbMATH Keywords
 
Floer homology
Property / zbMATH Keywords: Floer homology / rank
 
Normal rank
Property / zbMATH Keywords
 
symplectic field theory
Property / zbMATH Keywords: symplectic field theory / rank
 
Normal rank
Property / zbMATH Keywords
 
nonlinear Fredholm theory
Property / zbMATH Keywords: nonlinear Fredholm theory / rank
 
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Property / zbMATH Keywords
 
abstract perturbation scheme
Property / zbMATH Keywords: abstract perturbation scheme / rank
 
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Property / zbMATH Keywords
 
reparametrization action
Property / zbMATH Keywords: reparametrization action / rank
 
Normal rank
Property / zbMATH Keywords
 
Banach scale
Property / zbMATH Keywords: Banach scale / rank
 
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sc-retract
Property / zbMATH Keywords: sc-retract / rank
 
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Property / MaRDI profile type: MaRDI publication profile / rank
 
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Property / arXiv ID: 1210.6670 / rank
 
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Property / OpenAlex ID: W3103360370 / rank
 
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links / mardi / namelinks / mardi / name
 

Latest revision as of 10:28, 30 July 2024

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Polyfolds: a first and second look
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    Polyfolds: a first and second look (English)
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    30 December 2016
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    The goal of this paper is to give an exposition of the general polyfold theory, developed by Hofer, Wysocki and Zehnder since 2004, accessible to a reader familiar with the general ideas of elliptic differential equations, compactification of moduli, and Banach spaces. The applications include Gromov-Witten theory, Floer homology, symplectic field theory, and the point is to develop an abstract nonlinear Fredholm theory that uniformly resolves the issues of compactness, convergence to singular curves, and transversality. The end result is a theory with an abstract perturbation scheme coupled with the implicit function theorem, which removes the need for most of the ad hoc analytic constructions that currently fill the literature. The polyfold theory is expected to interpret any compactified moduli space as the zero set of a ``scale smooth'' Fredholm section \(\sigma\) in a ``polyfold bundle''. Once the compactness of \(\sigma^{-1}(0)\) is established the theory provides arbitrarily small perturbations \(p\) such that \(\sigma+p\) is transverse to the zero section, the zero set of the perturbed section is a compact finite dimensional manifold (or orbifold when discrete automorphisms are present) with boundary/corners, and the zero sets of different perturbations are cobordant. The paper is split into two parts. The first, ``philosophical'', part presents the key ideas informally, using the gradient flow trajectories of the finite dimensional Morse theory as toy examples. The second, ``technical'', part streamlines formal definitions and key theorems to get to the abstract transversality result quickly. For proofs the reader is mostly referred to the original sources. There are two main issues that are addressed by the polyfold construction. First, the reparametrization action of automorphisms on infinite dimensional spaces of maps is not differentiable in any familiar Banach topology. In applications this forces one to look for equivariant transverse perturbations before taking the reparametrization quotient, which can only be found under severe restrictions on allowed maps, like injectivity. The polyfold theory instead uses a notion of differentiability in a Banach scale, which imparts the scale smooth structure to the space of re\-para\-metri\-zation-equivalence classes of maps, and interprets the Cauchy-Riemann operator as a smooth section over this space. Second, the compactification of the moduli usually requires maps over singular domains, which precludes a description of the compactified moduli as a subset of a single Banach manifold of maps. The polyfold theory introduces the notion of sc-retract (formalizing the pregluing construction), which allows one to build ambient spaces with neighborhoods of singular maps containing both singular and regular maps. Thus, part of the gluing construction is formalized by a Fredholm condition on the Cauchy-Riemann operator at singular maps, and the other parts are replaced by an implicit function theorem for Fredholm sections over sc-retracts.
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    compactification of moduli
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    Gromov-Witten theory
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    Floer homology
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    symplectic field theory
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    nonlinear Fredholm theory
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    abstract perturbation scheme
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    reparametrization action
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    Banach scale
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    sc-retract
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