Holomorphic Floer Theory and the Fueter Equation

Abstract

The Lagrangian Floer homology of a pair of holomorphic Lagrangian submanifolds of a hyperkahler manifold is expected to simplify, by work of Solomon-Verbitsky and others. This occurs in part because, in this setting, the symplectic action functional, the gradient flow of which computes Lagrangian Floer homology, is the real part of a holomorphic function. As noted by Haydys, thinking of this holomorphic function as a superpotential on an infinite-dimensional symplectic manifold gives rise to a quaternionic analog of Floer's equation for holomorphic strips: the Fueter equation. I will explain how this line of thought gives rise to a `complexification' of Floer's theorem identifying Fueter maps in cotangent bundles to Kahler manifolds with holomorphic planes in the base. This complexification has a conjectural categorical interpretation, giving a model for Fukaya-Seidel categories of Lefshetz fibrations, which should have algebraic implications for the study of Fukaya categories. This is a report on upcoming joint work with Aleksander Doan.