Morse inequalities for the area functional (Q6113402)

This paper belongs to a series of papers, started by the first and the third authors, and develops a Morse theory for higher dimensional minimal hypersurfaces. In classical Morse theory, the strong Morse inequalities relate the number of critical points of a generic Morse function \(f:M\to \mathbb{R}\) to the topology of the underlying manifold \(M\), and say that for any \(a\in \mathbb{R}\) and any \(r\in \mathbb{Z}_+\), \[ c_r(a)-c_{r-1}(a)+\dots +(-1)^rc_0(a) \geq b_r(a) - b_{r-1}(a) +\dots+ (-1)^rb_0(a) \] where \(c_j(a)\) denotes the number of critical points of index \(j\) in \(f^{-1}((-\infty,a))\), and \(b_j(a)\) is the \(j\)-th Betti number of \(f^{-1}((-\infty,a))\) over the reals. Historically, this result was first developed to study geodesics, which are critical points of the length functional. The authors prove the following: given a generic Riemannian metric on a closed manifold \(M^{n+1}\) of dimension \(3\leq n+1\leq 7\), the strong Morse inequalities above hold, where now \(c_j(a)\) denotes the number of closed, embedded, minimal hypersurfaces of index \(j\) with area less than \(a\), and \(b_j(a)\) is the \(j\)-th Betti number of the space of \(n\)-cycles with area less than \(a\). These results are also proved in the case of compact manifolds \(M^{n+1}\) with strictly convex boundary, when the minimal hypersurfaces considered share a fixed boundary in the boundary of \(M^{n+1}\). Previously, similar results were established for \(2\)-dimensional minimal surfaces, for instance in [\textit{M. Morse} and \textit{C. Tompkins}, Ann. Math. (2) 40, 443--472 (1939; JFM 65.0456.04)]. In order to show the Morse inequalities in the setting of higher dimensional minimal hypersurfaces, each step of the proof of the classical Morse inequalities is translated in terms of the Almgren-Pitts min-max theory. The authors combine several results in this field, including interpolation results and index bounds for min-max hypersurfaces [\textit{F. C. Marques} and \textit{A. Neves}, Camb. J. Math. 4, No. 4, 463--511 (2016; Zbl 1367.49036); Adv. Math. 378, Article ID 107527, 59 p. (2021; Zbl 1465.53076); \textit{R. Montezuma}, Calc. Var. Partial Differ. Equ. 59, No. 6, Paper No. 188, 29 p. (2020; Zbl 1461.53048)], the solution of the multiplicity one conjecture in min-max theory [\textit{X. Zhou}, Ann. Math. (2) 192, No. 3, 767--820 (2020; Zbl 1461.53051)], and a min-max characterization of certain minimal hypersurfaces [\textit{B. White}, J. Reine Angew. Math. 457, 203--218 (1994; Zbl 0808.49037)].