Caustics of Lagrangian homotopy spheres with stably trivial Gauss map

Lagrangian submanifolds; Maslov index (53D12) Symplectic aspects of mirror symmetry, homological mirror symmetry, and Fukaya category (53D37) Discrete Morse theory and related ideas in manifold topology (57Q70) Symplectic and contact topology in high or arbitrary dimension (57R17) Singularities of differentiable mappings in differential topology (57R45)

Abstract: For each positive integer

n

, we give a geometric description of the stably trivial elements of the group

p i_{n} U_{n} / O_{n}

. In particular, we show that all such elements admit representatives whose tangencies with respect to a fixed Lagrangian plane consist only of folds. By the h-principle for the simplification of caustics, this has the following consequence: if a Lagrangian distribution is stably trivial from the viewpoint of a Lagrangian homotopy sphere, then by an ambient Hamiltonian isotopy one may deform the Lagrangian homotopy sphere so that its tangencies with respect to the Lagrangian distribution are only of fold type. Thus the stable triviality of the Lagrangian distribution, which is a necessary condition for the simplification of caustics to be possible, is also sufficient. We give applications of this result to the arborealization program and to the study of nearby Lagrangian homotopy spheres.

Review text

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 \(\Sigma_0\).

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