Gluing maps and cobordism maps in sutured monopole and instanton Floer theories (Q2059708)

Sutured Floer homology is a topic of significant interest, combining the very important and powerful ideas of Floer theory and the theory of sutured manifolds. Sutured Floer homology was introduced by \textit{A. Juhász} [Algebr. Geom. Topol. 6, 1429--1457 (2006; Zbl 1129.57039)], and \textit{P. Kronheimer} and \textit{T. Mrowka} introduced sutured monopole and sutured instanton Floer homologies in [J. Differ. Geom. 84, No. 2, 301--364 (2010; Zbl 1208.57008)]. In 2011, Juhasz constructed a cobordism map for sutured cobordisms, and showed that with this construction, sutured Floer homology is a functor from the sutured cobordism category to the category of \(\mathbb{Z}_2\)-vector spaces. In this paper, the author constructs cobordism maps for sutured cobordisms in sutured monopole Floer homology and sutured instanton Floer homology. With this construction, the author shows that sutured monopole Floer homology is a functor from the sutured cobordism category to the category of projectively transitive systems of \(\mathcal{R}\)-modules, where \(\mathcal{R}\) is the Novikov ring, and that sutured instanton Floer homology is a functor from the sutured cobordism category to the category of projectively transitive systems of \(\mathbb{C}\)-vector spaces. A sutured cobordism \(\mathcal{W}\) between two balanced sutured manifolds \((M_1, \gamma_1)\) and \((M_2, \gamma_2)\) consists, roughly speaking, of a compact oriented \(4\)-manifold \(W\) with boundary \[ \partial W = -M_1 \cup Z \cup M_2, \] where \(Z\) is a compact, oriented cobordism from \(-\partial M_1\) to \(-\partial M_2\) with a contact structure \(\xi\) on \(Z\) to record the data of the sutures \(\gamma_1\) and \(\gamma_2\). Following the author's notation of using \(\underline{\text{SHG}}\) to denote both the sutured monopole Floer homology, \(\underline{\text{SHM}}\) and the sutured instanton Floer homology, \(\underline{\text{SHI}}\), the construction of cobordism maps \(\underline{\text{SHG}}(\mathcal{W}): \underline{\text{SHG}}(M_1, \gamma_1) \to \underline{\text{SHG}}(M_2, \gamma_2)\) is done in two steps: The first step, where much of the work of the construction is, is to use a contact cell decomposition of the contact manifold \((Z, \xi)\) relative to part of its boundary, \(-\partial M_1 \subset \partial Z\), to construct a gluing map \[ \Phi_{-\xi}:\underline{\text{SHG}}(M_1, \gamma_1) \to \underline{\text{SHG}}(M_1 \cup_{\partial M_1} (-Z), \gamma_2), \] using handle attaching maps, and the second is to use the \(4\)-manifold to construct a map \[ F_W:\underline{\text{SHG}}(M_1 \cup_{\partial M_1} (-Z), \gamma_2) \to \underline{\text{SHG}}(M_2, \gamma_2). \] The author shows that these maps make \(\underline{\text{SHG}}\) into a functor between the relevant categories. Moreover, the author shows several properties of the gluing maps \(\Phi_{-\xi}\), in particular, relating them to Baldwin and Sivek's contact handle attaching maps, and proving two conjectures of \textit{J. A. Baldwin} and \textit{S. Sivek} [Forum Math. Sigma 4, Paper No. e12, 82 p. (2016; Zbl 1355.53068); Selecta Math. 22, No. 2, 939--978, (2016; Zbl 1344.53059)]. The first states that for \(Z\) and \(M_1\) as above, given two different ways to decompose \(Z\) relative to \(\partial M_1\), the composition of the two sets of handle attaching maps are the same. The second states that for sutured instanton Floer homology, the contact element is preserved by the handle attaching map associated to a contact \(3\)-handle. The author also interprets the construction of the sutured cobordism maps as being induced by a single cobordism between closed 3-manifolds, by suitably closing up \(M_0\), \(M_1\), and \(W\), and uses this interpretation to exhibit a canonical pairing on the sutured monopole and sutured instanton Floer homology groups for balanced sutured manifolds. The author further shows that for a sutured cobordism \(\mathcal{W}\), for \(\mathcal{W}^\vee\) denoting \(\mathcal{W}\) run in the reverse direction, \(\mathcal{W}\) and \(\mathcal{W}^\vee\) induce dual maps with respect to the pairing.