Barcodes and area-preserving homeomorphisms (Q2058825)

Let \((\Sigma,\omega)\) be a closed surface equipped with an area form \(\omega\). The group of Hamiltonian homeomorphisms \(\overline{\mathrm{Ham}}(M,\omega)\) is the \(C^0\)-closure of Hamiltonian diffeomorphisms of \((\Sigma,\omega)\). A barcode \(B = \{I_j\}_{j \in \mathbb{N}}\) is a countable collection of intervals \(I_j = (a_j, b_j]\), \(a_j \in \mathbb{R}\), \(b_j \in \mathbb{R} \cup \infty\), which satisfy certain finiteness assumptions. The applications of barcodes to various problems of geometry and analysis can be found in [\textit{L. Polterovich} et al., Topological persistence in geometry and analysis. Providence, RI: American Mathematical Society (AMS) (2020; Zbl 1464.55003)]. The authors state: ``Our goal in writing this paper is to use a new set of tools to study dynamics of area-preserving homeomorphisms. Floer homology has played an important role in studying dynamical features of Hamiltonian diffeomorphisms. However, it is not well defined for nonsmooth objects such as area-preserving homeomorphisms. As we will see in this article, barcodes provide us with a medium through which one can define and effectively apply Floer theory for studying dynamics of area-preserving homeomorphisms.'' Using Hamiltonian Floer theory one can associate a barcode \(B(\phi)\) to every Hamiltonian diffeomorphism \(\phi\). The authors show that the barcode \(B(\phi)\) depends continuously, with respect to the uniform topology, on \(\phi\), and is well defined for Hamiltonian homeomorphisms. A natural equivalence relation on \(\overline{\mathrm{Ham}}(M,\omega)\) is the \textit{weak conjugacy}, the strongest Hausdorff equivalence relation on \(\overline{\mathrm{Ham}}(M,\omega)\) which is weaker than the conjugacy relation; the weak conjugacy is characterized by the following universal property: \(f\) is weakly conjugate to \(g\) if and only if \(\theta(f) = \theta(g)\) for any continuous function \(\theta : \overline{\mathrm{Ham}}(M,\omega) \to Y\), where \(\theta\) is invariant under conjugation and \(Y\) is a Hausdorff topological space. The authors show that for a large class of Hamiltonian homeomorphisms with a finite number of fixed points, the number of fixed points, counted with multiplicity, is a weak conjugacy invariant. From the abstract of the paper: ``The proof relies, in addition to the theory of barcodes, on techniques from surface dynamics such as Le Calvez's theory of transverse foliations. In our exposition of barcodes and persistence modules, we present a proof of the isometry theorem which incorporates Barannikov's theory of simple Morse complexes.''.