The flow category of the action functional on \({\mathcal L}G_{N,N+K} (\mathbb{C})\) (Q1567021)

The classical Morse theory, from the homotopy point of view, can be understood as attaching cells (handles) through each critical level. For a Morse function \(f: X \to \mathbb{R}\), the attached cell on a critical point \(x\) can be described as the space of the union (compactified version) of \(M(y, x)\) of gradient flow lines from critical points \(y\) to \(x\) [\textit{J. W. Milnor}, Morse theory, Ann. Math. Stud. 51 (1963; Zbl 0108.10401)]. Bott generalized this to the critical submanifold case with attaching cells from normal bundles of the submanifolds, and Conley extended it to the homotopy index for isolated critical sets. Floer obtained his Floer homology from the Conley index, the Witten complex and the relative index (spectral flow) ideas which motivated him to prove the Arnold conjecture for some cases [\textit{A. Floer}, Commun. Math. Phys. 120, No. 4, 575-611 (1989; Zbl 0755.58022)]. The flow category of a Morse function was first introduced by \textit{R. L. Cohen, J. D. S. Jones} and \textit{G. B. Segal} [Prog. Math. 133, 297-325 (1995; Zbl 0843.58019)]. For a Morse-Bott function \(f: X \to \mathbb{R}\), the flow category \(C_f\) is a topological category whose objects are the critical points (submanifolds) of \(f\) and whose morphisms between two objects are the piecewise gradient flow lines connecting from one to another. For a finite-dimensional manifold \(X\), the flow category recovers the homotopy information of \(X\) for any Morse-Bott function. For a multi-valued Morse function \(f: X \to \mathbb{R}/\mathbb{Z}\), the flow category is \(C_{\widetilde{f}}\) for \(\widetilde{f}: \widetilde{X} \to \mathbb{R}\) the infinite cyclic cover of \(X\). For closed 1-forms representing homology classes, one can obtain the homotopy theory of \(X\) from the Novikov approach [\textit{S. P. Novikov}, Russ. Math. Surv. 37, No. 5, 1-56 (1982); translation from Usp. Mat. Nauk 37, No. 5(227), 3-49 (1982; Zbl 0571.58011)]. The paper under review describes the flow category of \({\mathcal A}_{w}: LG_{n, n+k}(\mathbb{C}) \to \mathbb{R}/\mathbb{Z}\) for the symplectic action map and the standard symplectic form \(w\) on the \(\mathbb{C}\)-Grassmann manifold of \(n\)-planes in \(\mathbb{C}^{n+k}\). (It is indicated in Cohen, Jones and Segal's paper that their method for \(\mathbb{C}\mathbb{P} ^n\) can be extended to the case of \(G_{n,n+k}(\mathbb{C})\).) Since \(\pi_1(LG_{n, n+k}(\mathbb{C})) = \pi_2(G_{n, n+k}(\mathbb{C})) = \mathbb{Z}\), the flow category is \(\widetilde{A}_w: \widetilde{LG_{n, n+k}}(\mathbb{C}) \to \mathbb{R}\) on the universal cover. The objects are \(G_{n, n+k}(\mathbb{C}) \times \mathbb{Z}\), and the morphisms are the gradient flow lines which can be identified with holomorphic maps \(\mathbb{C}\mathbb{P} ^1 \to G_{n, n+k}(\mathbb{C})\) (think of \(\mathbb{C}\mathbb{P}^1\) as \(S^1 \times \mathbb{R}/(a, \pm \infty) \sim (b, \pm \infty)\) for \(a, b \in S^1\)). Using the result of Mann and Milgram, the morphism can be represented by equivalence classes of \(n \times (n+k)\) matrices \(M_{n \times (n+k)}(\mathbb{C}[z,z^{-1}])\) with Laurent polynomial entries \(\mathbb{C}[z,z^{-1}]\) (a role of the Novikov ring). Under the identification, one has that the flow category of \({\widetilde{A}}_w\) is the same flow category on \(P_{n, n+k}(\mathbb{C}[z,z^{-1}])/ GL_n^c(\mathbb{C}[z,z^{-1}])\) with morphisms given by gradient flow lines of \(f_A: G_n(\infty) \to \mathbb{R}\), where \(G_n(\infty)\) is the infinite dimensional Grassmann manifold of \(n\)-planes in \(\mathbb{C}[z,z^{-1}]^{n+k}\), \(P_{n, n+k}(\mathbb{C}[z,z^{-1}])\) is the space of polynomial maps in Stiefel manifold of nondegenerate \(n\)-tuples in \(\mathbb{C}[z,z^{-1}]^{n+k}\), \(GL_n^c(\mathbb{C}[z,z^{-1}])\) is the group of non-zero constant determinants of \(n \times n\) matrices, and \(f_A\) is the direct limit of Morse-Bott functions on finite Grassmann manifolds with bounded degree of Laurent polynomials. The main theorem of the paper is to complete the detailed identification on the flow categories mentioned above in Section 3. In Section 4 of the paper, the author looks at the homotopy type of \(f_A: G_n(\infty) \to \mathbb{R}\) as a cofinal system of the pro-spectrum. Applying the cohomology functor and Thom isomorphism, one gets the direct system of \(\{H^{*+2nl(n+k)}(G_n(\infty)), \cup c_n^{l(n+k)}\}_{l \geq 0}\) which is \(H^*(G_n(\infty))[c_n^{-(n+k)}]\) with \(c_n\) the Chern class of the tautological \(n\)-plane bundle over \(G_n(\infty)\). For \(n=1\), it gives the quantum ring of \(\mathbb{C}\mathbb{P}^k\).