Floer homologies, with applications

TL;DR

Floer homology, developed in the 1980s, has become a fundamental tool in symplectic and contact geometry, with diverse applications including fixed point theorems, conjectures, and topological invariants.

Contribution

This paper reviews classical Floer homologies and their key applications, emphasizing ideas over technical generality, for non-specialists.

Findings

Proofs of the Conley and Weinstein conjectures

Rigidity results for Lagrangian submanifolds

Topological obstructions and invariants in symplectic topology

Abstract

Floer invented his theory in the mid eighties in order to prove the Arnol'd conjectures on the number of fixed point of Hamiltonian diffeomorphisms and Lagrangian intersections. Over the last thirty years, many versions of Floer homology have been constructed. In symplectic and contact dynamics and geometry they have become a principal tool, with applications that go far beyond the Arnol'd conjectures: The proof of the Conley conjecture and of many instances of the Weinstein conjecture, rigidity results on Lagrangian submanifolds and on the group of symplectomorphisms, lower bounds for the topological entropy of Reeb flows and obstructions to symplectic embeddings are just some of the applications of Floer's seminal ideas. Other Floer homologies are of topological nature. Among their applications are Property P for knots and the construction of compact topological manifolds of dimension greater than five that are not triangulisable. This is by no means a comprehensive survey on the presently known Floer homologies and their applications. Such a survey would take several hundred pages. We just describe some of the most classical versions and applications, together with the results that we know or like best. The text is written for non-specialists, and the focus is on ideas rather than generality. Two intermediate sections recall basic notions and concepts from symplectic dynamics and geometry.