Floer homology and square pegs

Abstract

We construct a version of Lagrangian Floer homology whose chain complex is generated by the inscriptions of a rectangle into a real analytic Jordan curve. By using its associated spectral invariants, we establish that a rectifiable Jordan curve admits inscriptions of a whole interval of rectangles. In particular, it inscribes a square if the area it encloses is more than half that of a circle of equal diameter.

arXiv comment29 pages, 9 figures; version 2: updated introduction, streamlined proof of properties of spectral invariants