A proof of Reidemeister-Singer's theorem by Cerf's methods

Heegaard splittings and Heegaard diagrams of a closed 3-manifold M are translated into the language of Morse functions with Morse-Smale pseudo-gradients defined on M. We make use in a very simple setting of techniques which Jean Cerf developed for solving a famous pseudo-isotopy problem. In passing, we show how to cancel the supernumerary local extrema in a generic path of functions when dim M>2. The main tool that we introduce is an elementary swallow tail lemma which could be useful elsewhere

On the codimension-one foliation theorem of W. Thurston

This article has been withdrawn due to a mistake which is explained in version 2.Comment: 1 pag

A Note on the Chas-Sullivan product

We give a finite dimensional approach to the Chas-Sullivan product on the free loop space of a manifold, orientable or not

A proof of Morse's theorem about the cancellation of critical points

In this note, we give a proof of the famous theorem of M. Morse dealing with the cancellation of a pair of non-degenerate critical points of a smooth function. Our proof consists of a reduction to the one-dimensional case where the question becomes easy to answer

A Morse complex on manifolds with boundary

Given a compact smooth manifold $M$ with non-empty boundary and a Morse function, a pseudo-gradient Morse-Smale vector field adapted to the boundary allows one to build a Morse complex whose homology is isomorphic to the (absolute or relative to the boundary) homology of $M$ with integer coefficients. Our approach simplifies other methods which have been discussed in more specific geometric settings

Essential curves in handlebodies and topological contractions

If $X$ is a compact set, a {\it topological contraction} is a self-embedding $f$ such that the intersection of the successive images $f^k(X)$, $k>0$, consists of one point. In dimension 3, we prove that there are smooth topological contractions of the handlebodies of genus $\geq 2$ whose image is essential. Our proof is based on an easy criterion for a simple curve to be essential in a handlebody

On the uniqueness of generating Hamiltonian for continuous limits of Hamiltonians flows

We show that if a sequence of Hamiltonian flows has a $C^0$ limit, and if the generating Hamiltonians of the sequence have a limit, then this limit is uniquely determned by the limiting $C^0$ flow. This answers a question by Y.G. Oh.Comment: 11 page

Regularization of Gamma_1-structures in dimension 3

For $\Gamma_1$-structures on 3-manifolds, we give a very simple proof of Thurston's regularization theorem, first proved in \cite{thurston}, without using Mather's homology equivalence. Moreover, in the co-orientable case, the resulting foliation can be chosen of a precise kind, namely an "open book foliation modified by suspension." There is also a model in the non co-orientable case