Raymond Cheng, Department of Pure Mathematics, University of Waterloo
“Symplecto-Morse Potpourri”
We take this week to develop more formally some of the methods we would like to use to compute Betti numbers of symplectic manifolds. Specifically, we outline the formalism of moment maps and how the moment map can serve as a good Morse function. Hopefully, by the end, we will be able to see precisely why the Morse inequalities are true. If time permits, we will make some comments on symplectic reduction.
MC 5403