Nontame Morse–Smale flows and odd Chern–Weil theory

Abstract

Abstract Using a certain well-posed ODE problem introduced by Shilnikov in the sixties, Minervini proved the currential “fundamental Morse equation” of Harvey–Lawson but without the restrictive tameness condition for Morse gradient flows. Here, we construct local resolutions for the flow of a section of a fiber bundle endowed with a vertical vector field which is of Morse gradient type in every fiber in order to remove the tameness hypothesis from the currential homotopy formula proved by the first author. We apply this to produce currential deformations of odd degree closed forms naturally associated to any hermitian vector bundle endowed with a unitary endomorphism and metric compatible connection. A transgression formula involving smooth forms on a classifying space for odd K-theory is also given.