Homotopy type of path spaces
Diane Kalish · Proceedings of the American Mathematical Society · 1992
This paper extends the Fundamental Theorem of Morse Theory to the two endmanifold case. The theorem relates the homotopy type of the space of paths connecting two submanifolds of a Riemannian manifold to the critical points of the energy function defined on this path space. Use of the author’s formulation of the Morse index Theorem in this setting allows for a simple computation of the homotopy type, and several specific examples are worked out.