From Morse functions to Lefschetz fibrations on cotangent bundles

Abstract

We prove that, for any Morse function on a compact manifold and any adapted gradient satisfying the Morse–Smale condition, there is a homotopically unique complex-valued symplectic Lefschetz fibration on the cotangent bundle whose restriction to the zero-section is the given function, whose imaginary part is the evaluation of covectors on the gradient, and which is equivariant under the actions of the fiberwise antipodal involution and the complex conjugation. Then we study the topology and symplectic geometry of the regular fibers of this fibration, which are well-defined Weinstein manifolds.