English

About homotopy classes of non-singular vector fields on the three-sphere

Dynamical Systems 2007-05-23 v1 Geometric Topology

Abstract

Generically, the set of points along which two non-singular vector fields on the three-sphere are positively (resp. negatively) collinear form a link. We prove that the two vector fields are homotopic if and only if the linking number of those links is zero. We use this criterion to give a new proof of a result of Yano: every non-singular vector field on the three-sphere is homotopic to a non-singular Morse-Smale vector field.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.math/0303315,
  title  = {About homotopy classes of non-singular vector fields on the three-sphere},
  author = {Emmanuel Dufraine},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:math/0303315},
  year   = {2007}
}

Comments

16 pages, 6 figures

R2 v1 2026-07-22T16:52:59.659Z