Simplifying Weinstein Morse functions (Q2224535)

If \(W^{2n}\) is a compact manifold with boundary, \(d\lambda\) is a symplectic form on \(W\), and the Liouville field \(X_\lambda\), defined by \(\mathrm{i}_Xd\lambda=\lambda\), is outward transverse along \(\partial W\), then the pair \((W^{2n},\lambda)\) is called a Liouville domain. If \((W,\lambda)\) is a Liouville domain, \(\varphi: W\to\mathbb{R}\) is a Morse function with maximal level set \(\partial W\), and \(X_\lambda\) is a gradient-like vector field for \(\varphi\), then \((W^{2n},\lambda,\varphi)\) is a Weinstein domain. If all critical points of \(\varphi\) have index strictly less than \(n\), then the Weinstein domain is called subcritical. Liouville and Weinstein cobordisms are defined similarly. Because \(W\) is compact and \(\varphi\) is a Morse function with maximal level set \(\partial W\), \(\varphi\) has finitely many critical points, and will be called a Weinstein Morse function. If \(c\) is any regular value, then \(W^c=\{\varphi\le c\}\) is also a Weinstein domain and will be called a Weinstein subdomain. If \(\Sigma^{2n-1}\subset(W^{2n},\lambda)\) is a hypersurface such that \(X_\lambda\) is transverse to \(\Sigma\), then \(\ker(\lambda\vert_{\Sigma})\) is a contact structure on \(\Sigma\). In the Weinstein case, a regular level set \(Y^c=\varphi^{-1}(c)\) of \(\varphi\) is such a hypersurface and so \((Y^c,\lambda\vert_{Y^c})\) is a contact manifold. In particular, the boundary \(\partial W\) of a Liouville or Weinstein domain \(W\) has a natural contact structure given by \(\xi=\ker(\lambda\vert_{\partial W})\). If \(X\) is a Liouville domain and \(\Lambda\) is a framed isotropic sphere in its contact boundary \(Y=\partial X\), then an elementary Weinstein cobordism with critical point \(p\) and \(\Lambda_p=\Lambda\) can be attached to \(X\) to obtain a new Liouville domain \( X_\Lambda=X\cup H^k_\Lambda\), where \(k=\text{ind}\, p=\dim\Lambda+1\). This operation is called Weinstein handle attachment and \(\Lambda\) is called the attaching sphere of the Weinstein handle. If \(X\) is Weinstein, then so is \(X_\Lambda\). If the dimension of \(\Lambda\subset Y^{2n-1}\) is less than \(n-1\), the handle attachment operation and \(\Lambda\) itself are all called subcritical. So, any subcritical Weinstein domain can be obtained by attaching subcritical Weinstein handles to the standard Weinstein structure on \(B^{2n}\). A Weinstein domain \((W^{2n},\lambda,\varphi)\), \(n\ge 3\), is said to be flexible if there exist regular values \(c_1,\dots,c_k\) of \(\varphi\) such that \(c_1\le\min\varphi<c_2<\dots<c_{k-1}<\max\varphi<c_k\) and, for all \(i=1,\dots,k-1\), \(\{c_i\le\varphi\le c_{i+1}\}\) is a Weinstein cobordism with a single critical point \(p\) whose the attaching sphere \(\Lambda_p\) is either subcritical or a loose Legendrian in \((Y^c,\lambda\vert_{Y^c})\). The Weinstein Morse function gives a symplectic handlebody presentation of the domain and allows to study of its symplectic geometry via high-dimensional Legendrian knot theory. The complexity \(\text{WCrit}(W)\) of a Weinstein structure \(W\) is the minimal number of critical points of a Weinstein Morse function \(\varphi\) on \(W\). The analog of WCrit in the smooth setting is \(\text{Crit}(M)\) which is the minimal number of critical points of any Morse function on a smooth manifold \(M\). In this paper, the author studies the relationship between \(\text{WCrit}(W)\) and \(\text{Crit}(M)\) as a way of investigating the difference between symplectic and smooth topology and the corresponding handlebody moves. In the first main result of the paper, the author shows that if \(W^{2n}\), \(n\ge 3\), is a Weinstein domain, then \(\text{WCrit}(W)\le\text{Crit}(W)+2\). Furthermore, if \(W\) is smoothly critical, then \(\text{WCrit}(W)=\text{Crit}(W)\). If \(W\) is smoothly subcritical and \(\pi_1(W)=0\), then \(\text{WCrit}(W)=\text{Crit}(W)\) if and only if \(W\) is a subcritical Weinstein domain. Otherwise, \(\text{WCrit}(W)=\text{Crit}(W)+2\). The next result states that any Weinstein domain \(W^{2n}\), \(n>3\), can be Weinstein homotoped to a Weinstein domain \(V^{2n}_{\text{flex}}\cup H^n\) obtained by attaching a single \(n\)-handle to a flexible Weinstein domain \(V^{2n}_{\text{flex}}\). Flexible Weinstein domains are defined only for \(n\ge3\). The analog of these domains for \(n=2\) are Weinstein domains whose index 2 handles are attached along stabilized Legendrians, and they are called stabilized domains. The author shows that any Weinstein domain \(W^4\) can be Weinstein homotoped to \(V^4\cup H^2\), where \(V^4\) is a stabilized domain that is simply homotopy equivalent to \(W^4\cup H^1\), and \(H^n\) stands for a Weinstein handle without specifying the attached sphere. In the next result, the author shows that there exists a constant \(C_n\ge 3\) depending only on \(n\) such that any smoothly trivial Weinstein cobordism \(W^{2n}\), \(n>3\), can be Weinstein homotoped to a presentation with two handles of respective indices \(n-1\) and \(n\) such that the belt sphere of the \((n-1)\)-handle and the attaching sphere of the \(n\)-handle intersect \(C_n\) times. Moreover, the author shows that the number of generators for the Grothendieck group of the wrapped Fukaya category is at most the number of generators for singular cohomology and hence vanishes for any Weinstein ball. Also, the author gives a topological obstruction to the existence of finite-dimensional representations of the Chekanov-Eliashberg differential graded algebra for Legendrians.