Morse homology with DG coefficients

Abstract

We develop a theory of Morse homology and cohomology with coefficients in a derived local system, for manifolds and also more generally for colimits of spaces that have the homotopy type of manifolds, with a view towards Floer theory. The model that we adopt for derived, or differential graded (DG) local systems is that of DG modules over chains on the based loop space of a manifold. These encompass both classical (non DG) local systems and chains on fibers of Hurewicz fibrations. We prove that the Morse homology and cohomology groups that we construct are isomorphic to DG Tor and Ext functors. The key ingredient in the definition is a notion of twisting cocycle obtained by evaluating into based loops a coherent system of representatives for the fundamental classes of the moduli spaces of Morse trajectories of arbitrary dimensions. From this perspective, our construction sits midway between classical Morse homology with twisted coefficients and more refined invariants of Floer homotopical flavor. The construction of the twisting cocycle is originally due to Barraud and Cornea with Z/2-coefficients. We show that the twisting cocycle with integer coefficients is equivalent to Brown's universal twisting cocycle. We prove that Morse homology with coefficients in chains on the fiber of a Hurewicz fibration recovers the homology of the total space of the fibration. We study several structural properties of the theory: invariance, functoriality, and Poincaré duality, also in the nonorientable case.

256 pages. v2: Minor modifications and additions to address referee's comments. Change to book format. v3: Minor change

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