The combinatorics of Morse theory with boundary

Abstract

We prove several combinatorial results on path algebras over discrete structures related to directed graphs. These results are motivated by Morse theory on a manifold with boundary and, more generally, by Floer theory on a configuration space with boundary. Their purpose is to organize cobordism relationships among moduli spaces in order to define new algebraic invariants. We discuss applications to the Morse and Fukaya categories, and to work with John Baldwin on a bordered monopole Floer theory.