Homotopy invariance of the Conley index and local Morse homology in Hilbert spaces (Q2407122)

The article develops a Conley-type theory for flows in infinite-dimensional spaces. Without local compactness a new condition, called Property-(C), is introduced. This suffices to prove existence of regular index pairs for any isolated invariant set of the flow. The authors restrict their considerations to the class of \(\mathcal{LS}\)-flows \(\varphi\). They automatically satisfy Property-(C). These flows are generated by a Lipschitz vector field of the form \(L + K\), where \(K\) is completely continuous, i.e., it maps bounded sets into precompact sets, and \(L\) is a bounded selfadjoint linear invertible operator such that there is a sequence of \(L\)-invariant finite-dimensional subspaces whose union is dense. The \(E\)-cohomology theory can be applied to spaces that possess an operator \(L\) under the previous hypothesis. The \(E\)-cohomological Conley index \(\text{ch}_E(S, \varphi)\) of an isolated invariant set \(S\) is defined as the \(E\)-cohomology of an index pair for \(S\) and does not depend on the choice of index pair. The two most important properties of the Conley index for applications are proved for the \(E\)-cohomological Conley index: (1) Non-triviality: \(\text{ch}_E(S, \varphi) \neq \emptyset \Rightarrow S \neq \emptyset\); (2) Continuation invariance: if two \(\mathcal{LS}\)-flows are related by continuation then their \(E\)-cohomological Conley indices are isomorphic. The authors prove that \(\mathcal{LS}\)-flows can be continued to gradient \(\mathcal{LS}\)-flows. Next, it is shown that the local Morse cohomology of gradient \(\mathcal{LS}\)-flows determines the \(E\)-cohomological Conley index. This result is used to give an intrinsic approach to the \(E\)-cohomological Conley index in terms of Lyapunov functions. The Morse-Conley-Floer homology of an \(\mathcal{LS}\)-flow \(\varphi\) is defined as the inverse limit over the local Morse homology of \(\mathcal{LS}\)-flows that admit a Lyapunov function and are related by continuation to \(\varphi\). The last theorem proves that the dual of this object, the Morse-Conley-Floer cohomology, is isomorphic to the \(E\)-cohomological Conley index.