Controlled connectivity of closed 1-forms

Abstract

We discuss controlled connectivity properties of closed 1-forms and their cohomology classes and relate them to the simple homotopy type of the Novikov complex. The degree of controlled connectivity of a closed 1-form depends only on positive multiples of its cohomology class and is related to the Bieri-Neumann-Strebel-Renz invariant. It is also related to the Morse theory of closed 1-forms. Given a controlled 0-connected cohomology class on a manifold M with n = dim M > 4 we can realize it by a closed 1-form which is Morse without critical points of index 0, 1, n-1 and n. If n = dim M > 5 and the cohomology class is controlled 1-connected we can approximately realize any chain complex D_* with the simple homotopy type of the Novikov complex and with D_i=0 for i < 2 and i > n-2 as the Novikov complex of a closed 1-form. This reduces the problem of finding a closed 1-form with a minimal number of critical points to a purely algebraic problem.