Index computations in Rabinowitz Floer homology

DOI10.1007/S11784-011-0047-YMaRDI QIDQ644458zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors Will J. Merry, Gabriel P. Paternain

Publication date 4 November 2011

Published in Journal of Fixed Point Theory and Applications (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/1009.3870

action functional, Morse index Conley-Zehnder index Rabinowitz Floer homology

Index theory for dynamical systems, Morse-Conley indices (37B30) Fixed points and periodic points of dynamical systems; fixed-point index theory; local dynamics (37C25) Lagrangian submanifolds; Maslov index (53D12) Symplectic aspects of Floer homology and cohomology (53D40)

Abstract: In this note we study two index questions. In the first we establish the relationship between the Morse indices of the free time action functional and the fixed time action functional. The second is related to Rabinowitz Floer homology. Our index computations are based on a correction term which is defined as follows: around a non-degenerate Hamiltonian orbit lying in a fixed energy level a well-known theorem says that one can find a whole cylinder of orbits parametrized by the energy. The correction term is determined by whether the periods of the orbits are increasing or decreasing as one moves up the orbit cylinder. We also provide an example to show that, even above the Ma~n'e critical value, the periods may be increasing thus producing a jump in the Morse index of the free time action functional in relation to the Morse index of the fixed time action functional.

Review text

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 \(\chi(y) = -1\).

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