The three-dimensional Fueter equation and divergence-free frames (Q1956386)

The classical Floer theory studies the space of maps from a complex curve to a complex manifold with some additional structures (such as a Kähler manifold). In around 2009 \textit{S. Hohloch}, \textit{G. Noetzel} and the author developed the hyper-Kähler Floer theory [Geom. Topol. 13, No. 5, 2543--2617 (2009; Zbl 1220.53099); in: CRM Proceedings and Lecture Notes 49, 251--261 (2009; Zbl 1181.53077)], which studies maps from a 3-sphere or 3-torus, equipped with a standard frame, to a flat hyper-Kähler manifold. The paper under review extends the hyper-Kähler Floer theory from the case of source being a 3-sphere or 3-torus to the case of the source being a general closed orientable 3-manifold, equipped with a regular divergence-free frame. Suppose \(M\) is a 3-manifold, equipped with a volume form and a global divergence-free frame \(v=(v_1,v_2,v_3)\), i.e., for the Lie derivative holds \(L_{v_i}\mathrm{dvol}_M=0\) for \(i=1,2,3\). \(v\) is called regular if every solution \(f:M\to \mathbb{H}\) (the quaternions) of the following linear Fueter equation \[ J_1\partial _{v_1}f+J_2\partial _{v_2}f+J_3\partial_{v_3}f=0 \] is constant. The key point of the paper is that if \(v\) is a regular divergence-free frame, then for any \(f: M\to X\) (\(X\) is a hyper-Kähler manifold), \(J_1\partial _{v_1}f+J_2\partial _{v_2}f+J_3\partial_{v_3}f\) controls the \(L^2\)-norm of \(df\), from which one deduces that the moduli space of solutions of the Fueter equation with a Hamiltonian perturbation \[ J_1\partial _{v_1}f+J_2\partial _{v_2}f+J_3\partial_{v_3}f=\nabla H(f) \] can be compactified. Therefore the hyper-Kähler Floer theory with flat target manifolds carries over to all regular divergence-free frames and the hyper-Kähler Arnold conjecture holds in this case. The paper consists of seven sections and two appendices. Section 1 gives the background and outline of the paper. Section 2 introduces the Fueter equation, and shows that the set of regular divergence-free frames is open and dense in the set of positive divergence-free frames. Section 3 gives several examples of 3-manifolds with or without regular divergence-free frames. Section 4 introduces the hyper-Kähler Floer theory, where the hyper-Kähler Floer homology groups are defined. Section 6 discusses the gauged Fueter equation, associated to a \(G\)-action on the target manifold generated by a hyper-Kähler moment map. Sections 5 and 7 discuss some relations to Donaldson-Thomas theory and Seiberg-Witten theory respectively. Appendix A reproves a result of Gromov which says that the embedding of divergence-free positive frames into the set of positive frames is a homotopy equivalence. Appendix B discusses two results about self-adjoint Fredholm operators, which is used in the main body of the paper.