Lecture notes on Heegaard Floer homology

Abstract

These are the notes for a lecture series on Heegaard Floer homology, given by the first author at the R\'enyi Institute in January 2023, as part of a special semester titled ``Singularities and Low Dimensional Topology''. Familiarity with Heegaard diagrams and Morse theory is assumed. We first illustrate the relevant algebraic structures via grid homology, and then highlight the geometric rather than combinatorial nature of the general theory. We then define Heegaard Floer homology in the context of Lagrangian Floer homology, and describe some key properties.