
Constrained Floer Homology
Emilia Konrad, of Augsburg University, presents a research talk on constrained Floer homology for the IAS/Princeton/Montreal/Paris/Tel-Aviv Symplectic Geometry Zoominar. She examines the symplectic area functional restricted to loops with vanishing Hamiltonian mean value, showing it shares critical points with the Rabinowitz action functional and can be used to build an analogous Floer homology theory. Unlike Rabinowitz Floer homology, this construction admits an intrinsic product structure, but its gradient flow equation carries a non-local term that complicates the analysis. Konrad works through the Fredholm theory and compactness arguments needed to define this homology rigorously, then turns to open questions that remain unresolved in the construction. The talk assumes familiarity with symplectic geometry and Floer theory and is aimed at researchers in the field rather than newcomers, running about thirty minutes as one of three short research talks in the seminar series.