Dimensionally reduced sutured Floer homology as a string homology (Q2346718)

The authors define two similar chain complexes over \({\mathbb Z}_2\) on an oriented surface \(\Sigma\) with a finite set of signed points \(F\subset \partial \Sigma\) on its boundary. The generators of the chain complexes are (different types of) homotopy classes of string diagrams determined by \(F\), with the grading based on the number of crossings, and the boundary operators defined by resolving crossings. They call the homology of their chain complexes ``string homology'', although there does not appear to be much of a connection between the homology defined in this paper and the more well known string homology defined by Chas and Sullivan. The first main theorem in the paper says that if \(F\) contains two consecutive distinct points of the same sign, then the homologies are zero, and in the second and third main theorems the authors compute the homologies of their chain complexes for the \(2\)-disk \(D^2\) and relate the result to sutured Floer homology. \smallpagebreak Let \(\Sigma\) be a compact oriented surface with nonempty boundary. The authors define a \textbf{marking} \(F \subset \partial \Sigma\) to be a set of \(2n\) points, where \(n \geq 1\), with \(n\) points labeled ``in'' and \(n\) points labeled ``out'', and at least one point on each component of \(\partial \Sigma\). The marking is called \textbf{alternating} if around each component of \(\partial \Sigma\) the labels on the points in \(F\) alternate between in and out. An alternating \((\Sigma,F)\) is the boundary of a set of \textbf{sutures} on \(\Sigma\). The precise definition of a \textbf{set of sutures} \(\Gamma\) on \((\Sigma,F)\) is given in \textbf{Definition 2.3}, but the authors also give this rough definition, ``...a set of sutures on \((\Sigma,F)\) is a properly embedded set of curves \(\Sigma\) with oriented boundary \(F\) and cutting \(\Sigma\) coherently into positive and negative regions \(R_\pm\)''. They call a pair \((\Sigma,\Gamma)\) a \textbf{sutured surface}. As a generalization of sutures, the authors give the following definition \textbf{Definition 2.4} A \textbf{string diagram} \(s\) on the marked surface \((\Sigma ,F)\) is an immersed oriented \(1\)-manifold in \(\Sigma\), such that \(\partial s = F\) (as signed points). \smallpagebreak The authors consider four different types of homotopy relations between string diagrams: \textbf{homotopic} (homotopic rel endpoints), \textbf{regular homotopic} (homotopic rel endpoints through immersions), \textbf{ambient isotopic}, and \textbf{spin homotopic} (Definition 2.6), which are related as follows: ambient isotopy \(\subset\) regular homotopy \(\subset\) spin homotopy \(\subset\) homotopy. The different types of homotopies are related to various string Reidemeister moves discussed in Sections \textbf{2B} and \textbf{2C} of the paper. \smallpagebreak In Section 3 of the paper the authors define their chain complexes. { Definition 3.1} Given a marked surface \((\Sigma, F)\), we define the following vector spaces over \({\mathbb Z}_2\): (1) \(CS^{\infty}(\Sigma, F)\) is freely generated by spin homotopy classes of string diagrams on \((\Sigma, F)\). (2) \(\widehat{CS}(\Sigma, F)\) is freely generated by homotopy classes of string diagrams on \((\Sigma,F)\) which contain no contractible closed curves. \smallpagebreak There is a natural map \(p: CS^{\infty}(\Sigma, F) \rightarrow \widehat{CS}(\Sigma, F)\). For the case \(\Sigma = D^2\) and \(|F| = 2n\) the authors note that dim \(\widehat{CS}(\Sigma, F) = n!\) and \(CS^{\infty}(\Sigma, F)\) is infinite dimensional. Section \textbf{3B} defines gradings on \(CS^{\infty}(\Sigma, F)\) and \(\widehat{CS}(\Sigma,F)\) given by the number of intersections of the curves in a string diagram, and Section \textbf{3C} defines another grading on \(CS^{\infty}(D^2, F)\) given by the Euler class. The differential on the chain complexes is defined in Section \textbf{3E} in terms of resolving transverse double crossings in a string diagram, and in Section \textbf{3F} the authors define a \(U\) map in terms of Reidemeister moves analogous to the \(U\) map for the \(HF^\infty\) version of Heegaard Floer homology and embedded contact homology. \smallpagebreak The full statements of the main theorems in the paper are in Section \textbf{3G}, and the proofs of the main theorems are in Sections 4--8. The shorter statements of the main theorems from Section 1 are as follows. \smallpagebreak { Theorem 1.1} If \(F\) contains two consecutive distinct points of the same sign, then \(\widehat{HS}(\Sigma,F) = HS^\infty(\Sigma,F) = 0\). \smallpagebreak { Theorem 1.2} If \(F\) alternates in sign, then \[ \widehat{HS}(D^2,F) \cong \frac{{\mathbb Z}_2 <\text{isotopy\;classes of sutures on }(D^2,F)>} {\text{bypass\;relation}} \] and \(HS^\infty(D^2,F) \cong {\mathbb Z}_2[U,U^{-1}] \otimes \widehat{HS}(D^2,F)\). \smallpagebreak {Theorem 1.3} Let \((D^2,F)\) be a sutured background disk. Then, with \({\mathbb Z}_2\) coefficients, \[ \widehat{HS}(D^2,F) \cong SFH(D^2 \times S^1,F \times S^1) \] The SFH in the preceding theorem refers to sutured Floer homology, and the isomorphism is proved by showing that the left hand side is isomorphic to \(({\mathbb Z}_2 {\mathbf 0} \oplus {\mathbb Z}_2 {\mathbf 1})^{\otimes (n-1)}\).