On the stable set of an analytic gradient flow (Q2041732)

The author studies some properties of gradient flows from the point of view of algebraic topology. Let \(f\colon(\mathbb{R}^n, 0)\to (\mathbb{R}, 0)\) be an analytic function defined in a neighborhood of the origin, having a critical point at 0. Let \(T(f)\) be the set of integral curves of the gradient system \(\dot{x}=\nabla f(x)\) which converge to the origin, and \(S(f)\) be the union of all orbits of the solutions that converge to the origin. A natural question arises: is the set \(T(f)\) infinite or is the interior of \(S(f)\) non-empty? Let \(\omega\colon(\mathbb{R}^n, 0)\to (\mathbb{R}, 0)\) be the homogeneous initial form associated with \(f\). Set \(\Omega =S^{n-1}\bigcap\{\omega<0\}\). Let \(S_r=S_r^{n-1}\bigcap\{f<0\}\), where \(S_r^{n-1}=\{x\in\mathbb{R}^n| |x|=r\}\), \(0<r\ll 1\). There are two main results in the paper. The first one shows that \(T(f)\) is infinite if rank \(H^0(S_r)\) < rank \(H^0(\Omega)\). The second one shows that int \(S(f)\ne\emptyset\) if rank \(H^{n-2}(S_r)\) < rank \(H^{n-2}(\Omega)\), where \(H^{n-2}(\cdot)\) is the \((n-2)\)-th cohomology group with rational coefficients. Ten illustrative examples are given.