Caustics of Lagrangian homotopy spheres with stably trivial Gauss map (Q6042865)

Let \((M,\omega)\) be a \(2n\)-dimensional symplectic manifold, \(L\subset M\) a Lagrangian submanifold, and \(\gamma\subset TM\) a Lagrangian distribution. Then \(\gamma|_L\) is \textit{stably trivial} if \(\gamma|_L\oplus\mathbb{R}\) is homotopic to \(TL\oplus\mathbb{R}\) as Lagrangian distributions in the symplectic vector bundle \(\mathbb{C}^{n+1}\to TM|_L\oplus\mathbb{C}\to L\). A \textit{tangency} between \(L\) and \(\gamma\) is a point \(x\in L\) such that \(T_xL\cap\gamma_x\neq0\). The locus of corank one tangencies \(\Sigma^1=\{x\in L\mid\text{dim}(T_xL\cap\gamma_x)=1\}\) is a \(C^{\infty}\)-generically smooth closed hypersurface in \(L\), and \(\ell=(TL\cap\gamma)|_{\Sigma^1}\) is a line field in \(TL|_{\Sigma^1}\). We say that a tangency point \(x\in\Sigma^1\) is of \textit{fold type} if \(\Sigma^1\) is transversely cut out in a neighborhood of \(x\) and \(\ell_x \pitchfork T_x\Sigma^1\) inside \(T_xL\). In this paper the authors prove the following \(h\)-principle for the simplification of caustics. {Theorem.} Let \(L\) be a Lagrangian homotopy sphere in a symplectic manifold \((M,\omega)\), and let \(\gamma\subset TM\) be a Lagrangian distribution. Then \(L\) is Hamiltonian isotopic to a Lagrangian submanifold which only has fold tangencies with respect to \(\gamma\) if and only if \(\gamma|_L\) is stably trivial. The proof is given in Sections 2--4. Using a previous result by the first author (Theorem 2.4 in this paper), it suffices to show a one-one correspondence between elements in \(\text{ker}(\pi_n(\mathrm{U}(n)/\mathrm{O}(n))\to\pi_n(\mathrm{U}(n+1)/\mathrm{O}(n+1)))\) and Lagrangian distributions \(\gamma\) having only fold tangencies with respect to \(L\) (Theorem 2.12), and a one-one correspondence between elements in \(\text{ker}(\pi_n(\mathrm{U}(n)/\mathrm{O}(n))\to\pi_n(\mathrm{U}(n+1)/\mathrm{O}(n+1)))\) and stably trivial Lagrangian distributions (Lemma 2.14). In particular, Theorem 2.12 is the key lemma and Sections 3 and 4 are devoted to its proof. The authors give Corollaries 1.6 and 1.7 as two applications of the main theorem above. They are discussed in Section 5. Recall that a \textit{Weinstein manifold} \((W,\lambda,\phi)\) is a compact manifold with boundary equipped with an exact symplectic form \(\omega=d\lambda\) and a Morse-Lyapunov function \(\phi\colon W\to\mathbb{R}\), and \textit{arboreal singularities} are special classes of Lagrangian singularities introduced by \textit{D. Nadler} [Geom. Topol. 21, No. 2, 1231--1274 (2017; Zbl 1420.57071)] and classified by finite rooted trees equipped with a decoration of a sign \(\pm1\) on each edge not adjacent to the root. Corollary 1.6 states that if \(TW\) admits a global field of Lagrangian planes and \(\phi\) has only two critical points, then by a homotopy of Weinstein structure \(W\) admits skeleta with arboreal singularities of height \(\leq 2\). The second application, Corollary 1.7, says that if \(\Sigma_0\) and \(\Sigma_1\) are homotopy spheres and \(\Sigma_1\) is a Lagrangian subspace of \(T^*\Sigma_0\) then there exist a tube bundle \(W\to\Sigma_0\), a framed function \(f\colon W\to\mathbb{R}\), and a Hamiltonian isotopy \(\varphi_t\) of \(\Sigma_1\) such that \(\varphi_1(\Sigma_1)\) is generated by \(f\). Here we explain the terminology. A \textit{tube} \(T\subset\mathbb{R}^{n+1}\) is a codimension-zero submanifold with boundary obtained by attaching a handle onto the half plane \(\{x_{n+1}\leq0\}\). A \textit{tube bundle} \(T\to W\to\Sigma_0\) is a smooth fibre bundle whose fibres are tubes contained in a fixed Euclidean subspace of \(\mathbb{R}^{n+1}\). A \textit{framed function} is a function \(f\colon W\to\mathbb{R}\) such that the restriction of \(f\) to each fibre \(T_x\) is Morse or generalized Morse, and the negative eigenspaces of the fibrewise Hessian at the fibrewise critical points are equipped with framings which vary continuously over \(\Sigma_0\).