Simple homotopy equivalence of nearby Lagrangians (Q1664358)

Let \(N\) and \(T^\ast N\) be a closed smooth manifold and its cotangent bundle. Then the following theorem is proved. Theorem 1. If \(L\subset T^\ast N\) is a closed exact Lagrangian, then the canonical map \(L\subset T^\ast N\to N\) is a simple homotopy equivalence. Since the simple homotopy types of lens spaces determine their diffeomorphism type, the following answer to a long standing open problem follows as a corollary of Theorem 1. Corollary 1.1. A pair of lens spaces are diffeomorphic if and only if their cotangent bundles are symplectomorphic. The proof is done along the following line: Using [\textit{M. Abouzaid}, Invent. Math. 189, No. 2, 251--313 (2012; Zbl 1261.53077); \textit{T. Kragh}, Geom. Topol. 17, No. 2, 639--731 (2013; Zbl 1267.53081)], the map \(L\to N\) is shown to be a homotopy equivalence, and the Whitehead torsion is well defined. Since the classical and Floer-theoretic torsions agree by Proposition 5.2(\S5), this Whitehead torsion agrees with the torsion of the Floer theoretic equivalence between \(L\) and \(N\). In \S4, it is proved that the Whitehead torsion of any Floer-theoretic equivalence of closed exact Lagrangians in \(T^\ast N\) vanishes (Proposition 4.4). Hence this torsion vanishes and we have the theorem. \textit{J. H. C. Whitehead}'s torsion is explained in \S2 following [Am. J. Math. 72, 1--57 (1950; Zbl 0040.38901)] and [\textit{J. W. Milnor}, Bull. Am. Math. Soc. 72, 358--426 (1966; Zbl 0147.23104)]. \S3 introduces the action of Whitehead torsion for a Floer theoretic equivalence, and shows Theorem 2. If \(K_0\) and \(K_1\) are Hamiltonian isotopic, and \(L\) is transverse to both, the equivalence of Floer cochains with coefficients in \(R\) \[ CF_\ast(K_0,L;R)\to CF_\ast(K_1,L;R), \quad CF_\ast(L,K_0;R)\to CF_\ast(L,K_1;R) \] have trivial Whitehead torsion. \S4 specializes the setting of \S3 to cotangent bundles and shows the following; if \(L\subset T^\ast N\) is an exact Lagrangian, then the torsion of the Floer-theoretic equivalence with zero section vanishes (Proposition 4.1). Proposition 4.4 follows from this proposition. In \S5, classical torsion, the classical torsion of the projection map \(L\to N\) is show to agree with the Floer theoretic torsion (Proposition 5.2). In the appendix, a lemma (monotonicity lemma) which gives a lower bound for the area of certain small neighborhoods of a point, is proved. It is used throughout the discussions of this paper.