1. Basics on Morse homology -- 2. Perturbations of gradient flow trajectories -- 3. Nonlocal generalizations -- 4. Moduli spaces of perturbed Morse ribbon trees -- 5. The convergence behaviour of sequences of perturbed Morse ribbon trees -- 6. Higher order multiplications and the A∞-relations -- 7. A∞-bimodule structures on Morse chain complexes -- A. Orientations and sign computations for perturbed Morse ribbon trees.
0
SUMMARY OR ABSTRACT
Text of Note
This book elaborates on an idea put forward by M. Abouzaid on equipping the Morse cochain complex of a smooth Morse function on a closed oriented manifold with the structure of an A∞-algebra by means of perturbed gradient flow trajectories. This approach is a variation on K. Fukaya's definition of Morse-A∞-categories for closed oriented manifolds involving families of Morse functions. To make A∞-structures in Morse theory accessible to a broader audience, this book provides a coherent and detailed treatment of Abouzaid's approach, including a discussion of all relevant analytic notions and results, requiring only a basic grasp of Morse theory. In particular, no advanced algebra skills are required, and the perturbation theory for Morse trajectories is completely self-contained. In addition to its relevance for finite-dimensional Morse homology, this book may be used as a preparation for the study of Fukaya categories in symplectic geometry. It will be of interest to researchers in mathematics (geometry and topology), and to graduate students in mathematics with a basic command of the Morse theory.