Index computations in Rabinowitz Floer homology (Q644458)

The authors establish a relationship between the Morse indices of the free time action functional and the fixed time action functional for a Tonelli Hamiltonian on a twisted cotangent bundle. They also compute the virtual dimension of moduli spaces in Rabinowitz Floer homology in terms of an index defined in terms of the Conley-Zehnder index and a correction term. Let \((M,g)\) denote a closed connected orientable Riemannian manifold with cotangent bundle \(\pi:T^\ast M \rightarrow M\). Let \(\omega_0\) denote the canonical symplectic form on \(T^\ast M\), and let \(\sigma\) be a weakly exact \(2\)-form on \(M\), i.e. the pullback of \(\sigma\) to the universal cover of \(M\) is exact. Assume that \(\sigma\) admits a bounded primitive and define \[ \omega := \omega_0 + \pi^\ast\sigma. \] The symplectic manifold \((T^\ast M,\omega)\) is called the twisted cotangent bundle. Fix a Tonelli Hamiltonian \(H \in C^\infty(T^\ast M,{\mathbb R})\) and a regular value \(k\) of \(H\), and define \(\Sigma := H^{-1}(k)\). The free time action functional \({\mathcal S}_k:\Lambda M \times {\mathbb R}^+ \rightarrow {\mathbb R}\) on the completion \(\Lambda M\) of the free loop space under the Sobolev \(W^{1,2}\)-norm is defined by \[ {\mathcal S}_k(q,T) := T \int_{S^1} \left(L \left( q,\frac{\dot{q}}{T} \right) + k \right) dt + \int_{S^1 \times [0,1]} \bar{q}^\ast\sigma , \] where \(L\in C^\infty(T_\ast M,{\mathbb R})\) is the Fenchel dual Lagrangian. A pair \((q,T)\) is a critical point of \({\mathcal S}_k\) if and only if the curve \(\gamma:[0,T] \rightarrow M\) defined by \(\gamma(t):=q(t/T)\) is the projection to \(M\) of a closed orbit of the flow of the symplectic gradient \(X_H\) contained in \(\Sigma \subset T^\ast M\). Fixing the period \(T\) of the free time action functional gives the fixed period action functional \({\mathcal S}_k^T: \Lambda M \rightarrow {\mathbb R}\) defined by \({\mathcal S}_k^T(q) := {\mathcal S}_k(q,T)\). Let \(i(q,T)\) denote the Morse index of a critical point \((q,T) \in\mathrm{Crit}({\mathcal S}_k)\), which is finite since \(L\) is a Tonelli Lagrangian, and let \(i_T(q)\) denote the Morse index of \(q \in\text{Crit}({\mathcal S}_k^T)\). If \((q,T) \in\text{Crit}({\mathcal S}_k)\), then \(q \in\text{Crit}({\mathcal S}_k^T)\) and it is easy to see that \(0 \leq i(q,T) - i_T(q) \leq 1\). Under the assumption that the critical orbits of \(X_H\) admit nondegenerate orbit cylinders, the authors define a correction term \(\chi(q,T) \in \{-1,1\}\) and they prove the following. \textbf{Theorem 1.3.} Let \((q,T) \in\text{Crit}({\mathcal S}_k\) denote a critical point admitting a nondegenerate orbit cylinder. Then \[ i(q,T) = i_T(q) + \frac{1}{2} - \frac{1}{2} \chi(q,T). \] The authors also study the Rabinowitz action functional \({\mathcal A}_k:\Lambda T^\ast M \times {\mathbb R} \rightarrow {\mathbb R}\) whose critical points \((x,\eta) \in \Lambda T^\ast M \times {\mathbb R}\) with \(\eta > 0\) correspond bijectively to the closed orbits of \(X_H\) contained in \(\Sigma\). Lemma 1.4 of the paper explains the relationship between the critical points of the functionals \({\mathcal A}_k\) and \({\mathcal S}_k\). Under the assumption that a critical point \((x,\eta)\) of \({\mathcal A}_k\) admits a nondegenerate orbit cylinder the authors define a correction term \(\chi(z,\eta)\) and they define an index \[ \mu_{\text{Rab}}(x,\eta) := \mu_{CZ}(y) - \frac{1}{2} \chi(x,\eta) \in {\mathbb Z} \] where \(\mu_{CZ}(y)\) denotes the Conley-Zehnder index of \(y(t):= x(t/\eta)\). They prove the following. \textbf{Proposition 1.8.} The index \(\mu_{\text{Rab}}\) depends only on the hypersurface \(\Sigma = H^{-1}(k)\) and not on the actual Hamiltonian defining it. \textbf{Corollary 1.9.} The Morse index \(i(q,T)\) depends only on the hypersurface \(\Sigma\) and not on the Lagrangian \(L\). The other main result of the paper gives the virtual dimension of a moduli space of gradient flow lines of the Rabinowitz action functional \({\mathcal M}(v_-,v_+)\). \textbf{Theorem 1.10.} Let \(v_\pm = (x_\pm,\eta_\pm) \in \text{Crit}({\mathcal A}_k)\), with \(\eta_\pm \neq 0\), denote critical points of \({\mathcal A}_k\) that admit nondegenerate orbit cylinders. Then the space \({\mathcal M}(v_-,v_+)\) has virtual dimension \[ \mathrm{virdim}\;{\mathcal M}(v_-,v_+) = \mu_{\text{Rab}}(v_-) - \mu_{\text{Rab}}(v_+) - 1. \] The authors also discuss relationships with Rabinowitz Floer homology and Mañé's critical values, and in the last section of the paper they give an example of a Hamiltonian \(H\) on \(T^\ast S^2\) with a nondegenerate periodic orbit \(y\) of \(X_H\) whose correction term \(\chi(y) = -1\).