arXiv subjects

Vincent Humilière

Publications and source records attributed to Vincent Humilière.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Floer Homology with DG Coefficients. Applications to cotangent bundles

We define Hamiltonian Floer homology with differential graded (DG) local coefficients for symplectically aspherical manifolds. The differential of the underlying complex involves chain representatives of the fundamental classes of the moduli spaces of Floer trajectories of arbitrary dimension. This setup allows in particular to define and compute Floer homology with coefficients in chains on fibers of fibrations over the free loop space of the underlying symplectic manifold. We develop the DG Floer toolset, including continuation maps and homotopies, and we also define and study symplectic homology groups with DG local coefficients. We define spectral invariants and establish general criteria for almost existence of contractible periodic orbits on regular energy levels of Hamiltonian systems inside Liouville domains. In the case of cotangent bundles, we prove a Viterbo isomorphism theorem with DG local coefficients. This serves as a stepping stone for applications to the almost existence of contractible closed characteristics on closed smooth hypersurfaces. In this context, our methods allow to access for the first time the dichotomy between closed manifolds that are aspherical and those that are not.

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arXiv2026

Higher Dimensional Birkhoff attractors (with an appendix by Maxime Zavidovique)

We extend to higher dimensions the notion of Birkhoff attractor of a dissipative map. We prove that this notion coincides with the classical Birkhoff attractor. We prove that for the dissipative system associated to the discounted Hamilton-Jacobi equation the graph of a solution is contained in the Birkhoff attractor. We also study what happens when we perturb a Hamiltonian system to make it dissipative and let the perturbation go to zero. The paper contains two important results on $γ$-supports and elements of the $γ$-completion of the space of exact Lagrangians. Firstly the $γ$-support of a Lagrangian in a cotangent bundle carries the cohomology of the base and secondly given an exact Lagrangian $L$, any Floer theoretic equivalent Lagrangian is the $γ$-limit of Hamiltonian images of $L$. The appendix provides instructive counter-examples.

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arXiv2026

Open problems in billiards and quantitative symplectic geometry

This document collects contributions to the Open Problem List in Billiards and Quantitative Symplectic Geometry, compiled following discussions during the workshop ``Billiards and quantitative symplectic geometry'' that took place at the University of Heidelberg on July 14--18, 2025.

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arXiv2025

Subleading asymptotics of link spectral invariants and homeomorphism groups of surfaces

This paper continues the study of link spectral invariants on compact surfaces, introduced in our previous work and shown to satisfy a Weyl law in which they asymptotically recover the Calabi invariant. Here we study their subleading asymptotics on surfaces of genus zero. We show the subleading asymptotics are bounded for smooth time-dependent Hamiltonians, and recover the Ruelle invariant for autonomous disc maps with finitely many critical values. We deduce that the Calabi homomorphism admits infinitely many extensions to the group of compactly supported area-preserving homeomorphisms, and that the kernel of the Calabi homomorphism on the group of hameomorphisms is not simple.

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arXiv2024

Essential loops in completions of Hamiltonian groups

We initiate the study of the fundamental group of natural completions of the group of Hamiltonian diffeomorphisms, namely its $C^0$-closure $\overline{\mathrm{Ham}}(M,ω)$ and its completion with respect to the spectral norm $\widehat{\mathrm{Ham}}(M,ω)$. We prove that in some situations, namely complex projective spaces and rational Hirzebruch surfaces, certain Hamiltonian loops that were known to be non-trivial in $π_1\big(\mathrm{Ham}(M,ω)\big)$ remain non-trivial in $π_1\big(\widehat{\mathrm{Ham}}(M,ω)\big)$. This yields in particular cases, including $\mathbb C\mathrm P^2$ and the monotone $S^2\times S^2$, the injectivity of the map $π_1\big(\mathrm{Ham}(M,ω)\big)\toπ_1\big(\widehat{\mathrm{Ham}}(M,ω)\big)$ induced by the inclusion. The same results hold for the Hofer completion of $\mathrm{Ham}(M,ω)$. Moreover, whenever the spectral norm is known to be $C^0$-continuous, they also hold for $\overline{\mathrm{Ham}}(M,ω)$. Our method relies on computations of the valuation of Seidel elements and hence of the spectral norm on $π_1\big(\mathrm{Ham}(M,ω)\big)$. Some of these computations were known before, but we also present new ones which might be of independent interest. For example, we show that the spectral pseudo-norm is degenerate when $(M,ω)$ is any non-monotone $S^{2}\times S^{2}$. At the contrary, it is a genuine norm when $M$ is the 1-point blow-up of $\mathbb C\mathrm P^{2}$; it is unbounded for small sizes of the blow-up and become bounded starting at the monotone one.

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arXiv2024

Morse homology with DG coefficients

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.

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arXiv2024

Quantitative Heegaard Floer cohomology and the Calabi invariant

We define a new family of spectral invariants associated to certain Lagrangian links in compact and connected surfaces of any genus. We show that our invariants recover the Calabi invariant of Hamiltonians in their limit. As applications, we resolve several open questions from topological surface dynamics and continuous symplectic topology: we show that the group of Hamiltonian homeomorphisms of any compact surface with (possibly empty) boundary is not simple; we extend the Calabi homomorphism to the group of Hameomorphisms constructed by Oh-Müller; and, we construct an infinite dimensional family of quasimorphisms on the group of area and orientation preserving homeomorphisms of the two-sphere. Our invariants are inspired by recent work of Polterovich and Shelukhin defining and applying spectral invariants for certain classes of links in the two-sphere.

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arXiv2023

The $γ$-support as a micro-support

We prove that for any element $L$ in the completion of the space of smooth compact exact Lagrangian submanifolds of a cotangent bundle equipped with the spectral distance, the $γ$-support of $L$ coincides with the reduced micro-support of its sheaf quantization. As an application, we give a characterization of the Vichery subdifferential in terms of $γ$-support.

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arXiv2021

PFH spectral invariants on the two-sphere and the large scale geometry of Hofer's metric

We resolve three longstanding questions related to the large scale geometry of the group of Hamiltonian diffeomorphisms of the two-sphere, equipped with Hofer's metric. Namely: (1) we resolve the Kapovich-Polterovich question by showing that this group is not quasi-isometric to the real line; (2) more generally, we show that the kernel of Calabi over any proper open subset is unbounded; and (3) we show that the group of area and orientation preserving homeomorphisms of the two-sphere is not a simple group. We also obtain, as a corollary, that the group of area-preserving diffeomorphisms of the open disc, equipped with an area-form of finite area, is not perfect. Central to all of our proofs are new sequences of spectral invariants over the two-sphere, defined via periodic Floer homology.

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arXiv2020

An Arnold-type principle for non-smooth objects

In this article we study the Arnold conjecture in settings where objects under consideration are no longer smooth but only continuous. The example of a Hamiltonian homeomorphism, on any closed symplectic manifold of dimension greater than 2, having only one fixed point shows that the conjecture does not admit a direct generalization to continuous settings. However, it appears that the following Arnold-type principle continues to hold in continuous settings: Suppose that X is a non-smooth object for which one can define spectral invariants. If the number of spectral invariants associated to X is smaller than the number predicted by the (homological) Arnold conjecture, then the set of fixed/intersection points of X is homologically non-trivial, hence it is infinite. We recently proved that the above principle holds for Hamiltonian homeomorphisms of closed and aspherical symplectic manifolds. In this article, we verify this principle in two new settings: $C^0$ Lagrangians in cotangent bundles and Hausdorff limits of Legendrians in 1-jet bundles which are isotopic to the zero section. An unexpected consequence of the result on Legendrians is that the classical Arnold conjecture does hold for Hausdorff limits of Legendrians in 1-jet bundles. Dedicated to Claude Viterbo on the occasion of his 60th birthday.

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arXiv2020

Proof of the simplicity conjecture

In the 1970s, Fathi, having proven that the group of compactly supported volume-preserving homeomorphisms of the $n$-ball is simple for $n \ge 3$, asked if the same statement holds in dimension $2$. We show that the group of compactly supported area-preserving homeomorphisms of the two-disc is not simple. This settles what is known as the "simplicity conjecture" in the affirmative. In fact, we prove the a priori stronger statement that this group is not perfect. An important step in our proof involves verifying for certain smooth twist maps a conjecture of Hutchings concerning recovering the Calabi invariant from the asymptotics of spectral invariants defined using periodic Floer homology. Another key step, which builds on recent advances in continuous symplectic topology, involves proving that these spectral invariants extend continuously to area-preserving homeomorphisms of the disc. These two properties of PFH spectral invariants are potentially of independent interest. Our general strategy is partially inspired by suggestions of Fathi and the approach of Oh towards the simplicity question. In particular, we show that infinite twist maps, studied by Oh, are not finite energy homeomorphisms, which resolves the "infinite twist conjecture" in the affirmative; these twist maps are now the first examples of Hamiltonian homeomorphisms which can be said to have infinite energy. Another consequence of our work is that various forms of fragmentation for volume preserving homeomorphisms which hold for higher dimensional balls fail in dimension two.

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arXiv2020

The action spectrum and C^0 symplectic topology

Our first main result states that the spectral norm on the group of Hamiltonian diffeomorphisms, introduced in the works of Viterbo, Schwarz and Oh, is continuous with respect to the C^0 topology, when M is symplectically aspherical. This statement was previously proven only in the case of closed surfaces. As a corollary, using a recent result of Kislev and Shelukhin, we obtain C^0 continuity of barcodes on aspherical symplectic manifolds, and furthermore define barcodes for Hamiltonian homeomorphisms. We also present several applications to Hofer geometry and dynamics of Hamiltonian homeomorphisms. Our second main result is related to the Arnold conjecture about fixed points of Hamiltonian diffeomorphisms. The recent example of a Hamiltonian homeomorphism, on any closed symplectic manifold of dimension greater than 2, having only one fixed point, shows that the conjecture does not admit a direct generalization to the C^0 setting. However, in this paper we demonstrate that a reformulation of the conjecture in terms of fixed points as well as spectral invariants still holds for Hamiltonian homeomorphisms on symplectically aspherical manifolds.

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arXiv2016

A C^0 counterexample to the Arnold conjecture

The Arnold conjecture states that a Hamiltonian diffeomorphism of a closed and connected symplectic manifold must have at least as many fixed points as the minimal number of critical points of a smooth function on the manifold. It is well known that the Arnold conjecture holds for Hamiltonian homeomorphisms of closed symplectic surfaces. The goal of this paper is to provide a counterexample to the Arnold conjecture for Hamiltonian homeomorphisms in dimensions four and higher. More precisely, we prove that every closed and connected symplectic manifold of dimension at least four admits a Hamiltonian homeomorphism with a single fixed point.

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arXiv2015

Reduction of symplectic homeomorphisms

In a previous article, we proved that symplectic homeomorphisms preserving a coisotropic submanifold C, preserve its characteristic foliation as well. As a consequence, such symplectic homeomorphisms descend to the reduction of the coisotropic C. In this article we show that these reduced homeomorphisms continue to exhibit certain symplectic properties. In particular, in the specific setting where the symplectic manifold is a torus and the coisotropic is a standard subtorus, we prove that the reduced homeomorphism preserves spectral invariants and hence the spectral capacity. To prove our main result, we use Lagrangian Floer theory to construct a new class of spectral invariants which satisfy a non-standard triangle inequality.

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arXiv2015

New energy-capacity-type inequalities and uniqueness of continuous Hamiltonians

We prove a new variant of the energy-capacity inequality for closed rational symplectic manifolds (as well as certain open manifolds such as cotangent bundle of closed manifolds...) and we derive some consequences to C^0-symplectic topology. Namely, we prove that a continuous function which is a uniform limit of smooth Hamiltonians whose flows converge to the identity for the spectral (or Hofer's) distance must vanish. This gives a new proof of uniqueness of continuous generating Hamiltonian for hameomorphisms. This also allows us to improve a result by Cardin and Viterbo on the C^0-rigidity of the Poisson bracket.

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arXiv2015

Towards a dynamical interpretation of Hamiltonian spectral invariants on surfaces

Inspired by Le Calvez' theory of transverse foliations for dynamical systems of surfaces, we introduce a dynamical invariant, denoted by N, for Hamiltonians of any surface other than the sphere. When the surface is the plane or is closed and aspherical, we prove that on the set of autonomous Hamiltonians this invariant coincides with the spectral invariants constructed by Viterbo on the plane and Schwarz on closed and aspherical surfaces. Along the way, we obtain several results of independent interest: We show that a formal spectral invariant, satisfying a minimal set of axioms, must coincide with N on autonomous Hamiltonians thus establishing a certain uniqueness result for spectral invariants, we obtain a "Max Formula" for spectral invariants on aspherical manifolds, give a very simple description of the Entov-Polterovich quasi-state on aspherical surfaces and characterize the heavy and super-heavy subsets of such surfaces.

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arXiv2015

Coisotropic rigidity and C^0-symplectic geometry

We prove that symplectic homeomorphisms, in the sense of the celebrated Gromov-Eliashberg Theorem, preserve coisotropic submanifolds and their characteristic foliations. This result generalizes the Gromov-Eliashberg Theorem and demonstrates that previous rigidity results (on Lagrangians by Laudenbach-Sikorav, and on characteristics of hypersurfaces by Opshtein) are manifestations of a single rigidity phenomenon. To prove the above, we establish a C^0-dynamical property of coisotropic submanifolds which generalizes a foundational theorem in C^0-Hamiltonian dynamics: Uniqueness of generators for continuous analogs of Hamiltonian flows.

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arXiv2007

On some completions of the space of Hamiltonian maps

We study the completions of the space of Hamiltonian diffeomorphisms of the standard linear symplectic space, for Viterbo's distance and some others derived from it, we study their different inclusions and give some of their properties. In particular, we give a convergence criterion for these distances. This allows us to prove that the completions contain non-ordinary elements, as for example, discontinuous Hamiltonians. We also prove that some dynamical properties of Hamiltonian systems are preserved in the completions.

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