Homotopical dynamics II: Hopf invariants, smoothings and the Morse complex (Q4800372)

This very interesting paper studies the moduli space \(Z(P,Q)\) of flow lines connecting two consecutive critical points \(P\) and \(Q\) of a Morse function \(f:M\to \mathbb{R}\). Here \(M\) is a closed smooth Riemannian manifold. If the Morse indices of \(P\) and \(Q\) are \(p\) and \(q\) correspondingly and there are no broken flow lines connecting \(P\) and \(Q\) then \(Z(P,Q)\) is a closed manifold of dimension \(p-q-1\) which naturally comes with a continuous map \(Z(P,Q)\to \Omega(M)\) into is the space of based loops \(\Omega(M)\) in \(M\). The main result of the paper continues a work of \textit{J. M. Franks} [Topology 18, 199-215 (1979; Zbl 0426.58013)] and gives a pure homotopical description of the framed bordism class of \(Z(P,Q)\), \[ [Z(P,Q)]^{\text{fr}}\in \Omega_{p-q-1}^{\text{fr}}(\Omega M). \] This description uses Hopf invariants of certain type. The author applies these results to construct non-smoothable Poincaré duality spaces. Besides, the author proves the formula \[ \sum_{Q\in I(P,R)}(-1)^{(p+r)q}[Z(P,Q)]^{\text{fr}}\bullet [Z(Q,R)]^{\text{fr}} =0, \] where \(P,R\) are critical points with \(f(P)>f(R)\) such that the flow lines connecting \(P\) to \(R\) are broken at most once. \(I(P,Q)\) denotes the set of intermediate critical points. The above equality takes place in the ring of framed bordisms \(\Omega^{\text{fr}}_\ast(\Omega M)\) of the loop space \(\Omega M\), the product \(\bullet\) is induced by the loop composition. [For part I of this paper see the author, Ergodic Theory Dyn. Syst. 20, 379-391 (2000; Zbl 0984.37017)].