Gradient Flow Line Near Birth-Death Critical Points

Charel Antony

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arXiv · 1706.07746

Gradient Flow Line Near Birth-Death Critical Points

Charel Antony

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Abstract

Near a birth-death critical point in a one-parameter family of gradient flows, there are precisely two Morse critical points of index difference one on the birth side. This paper gives a self-contained proof of the folklore theorem that these two critical points are joined by a unique gradient trajectory up to time-shift. The proof is based on the Whitney normal form, a Conley index construction, and an adiabatic limit analysis for an associated fast-slow differential equation.

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Charel Antony. 2017-06-23. Gradient Flow Line Near Birth-Death Critical Points. https://arxiv.org/abs/1706.07746

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