The gradient flow line equation, in a situation where Floer's ideas can be successfully applied, is typically a geometrically meaningful and analytically tractable equation. For symplectic Floer homology, the gradient flow equation for a path in the loopspace is (a perturbed version of) the Cauchy–Riemann equation for a map of a cylinder (the total space of the path of loops) to the symplectic manifold of interest; solutions are known as pseudoholomorphic curves. The Gromov compactness theorem is then used to show that the differential is well-defined and squares to zero, so that the Floer homology is defined. For instanton Floer homology, the gradient flow equations is exactly the Yang-Mills equation on the three-manifold crossed with the real line.