We introduce a parabolic flow of almost Kahler structures, providing an approach to constructing canonical geometric structures on symplectic manifolds. We exhibit this flow as one of a family of parabolic flows of almost Hermitian structures, generalizing our previous work on parabolic flows of Hermitian metrics. We exhibit a long time existence obstruction for solutions to this flow by showing certain smoothing estimates for the curvature and torsion. We end with a discussion of the limiting objects as well as some open problems related to the symplectic curvature flow.
We determine the isomorphism classes of symmetric symplectic manifolds of dimension at least 4 which are connected, simply-connected and have a curvature tensor which has only one non-vanishing irreducible component -- the Ricci tensor.
In this note we prove a simple relation between the mean curvature form, symplectic area, and the Maslov class of a Lagrangian immersion in a Kähler-Einstein manifold. An immediate consequence is that in Kähler-Einstein manifolds with positive scalar curvature, minimal Lagrangian immersions are monotone.
J. Streets and G. Tian recently introduced symplectic curvature flow, a geometric flow on almost Kähler manifolds generalising Kähler-Ricci flow. The present article gives examples of explicit solutions to this flow of non-Kähler structures on several nilmanifolds and on twistor fibrations over hyperbolic space studied by J. Fine and D. Panov. The latter lead to examples of non-Kähler static solutions of symplectic curvature flow which can be seen as analogues of Kähler-Einstein manifolds in Kähler-Ricci flow.
We consider invariant symplectic connections $\nabla$ on homogeneous symplectic manifolds $(M,ω)$ with curvature of Ricci type. Such connections are solutions of a variational problem studied by Bourgeois and Cahen, and provide an integrable almost complex structure on the bundle of almost complex structures compatible with the symplectic structure. If $M$ is compact with finite fundamental group then $(M,ω)$ is symplectomorphic to $¶_n(\C)$ with a multiple of its Kähler form and $\nabla$ is affinely equivalent to the Levi-Civita connection.
We study symplectic manifolds $(M^{2l},ω)$ equipped with a symplectic torsion-free affine (also called Fedosov) connection $\nabla$ and admitting a metaplectic structure. Let $\mathcal{S}$ be the so called symplectic spinor bundle and let $R^S$ be the curvature tensor field of the symplectic spinor covariant derivative $\nabla^S$ associated to the Fedosov connection $\nabla.$ It is known that the space of symplectic spinor valued exterior differential 2-forms, $Γ(M,\bigwedge^2T^*M\otimes {\mathcal{S}}),$ decomposes into three invariant spaces with respect to the structure group, which is the m…
In [11], I. M. Gelfand, V. Retakh, and M. Shubin defined the symplectic sectional curvature of a torsion-free connection preserving a symplectic form. The present article defines the corresponding notion of constant symplectic sectional curvature and characterizes this notion in terms of the curvature tensor of the symplectic connection and its covariant derivatives. Some relations between various more general conditions on the symplectic sectional curvature and the geometry of the symplectic connection or that induced on a symplectic submanifold are explored as well.
Recently, J. Streets and G. Tian introduced a natural way to evolve an almost-Kähler manifold called the symplectic curvature flow, in which the metric, the symplectic structure and the almost-complex structure are all evolving. We study in this paper different aspects of the flow on locally homogeneous manifolds, including long-time existence, solitons, regularity and convergence. We develop in detail two classes of Lie groups, which are relatively simple from a structural point of view but yet geometrically rich and exotic: solvable Lie groups with a codimension one abelian normal subgroup a…
An almost Kähler structure on a symplectic manifold $(N, ω)$ consists of a Riemannian metric $g$ and an almost complex structure $J$ such that the symplectic form $ω$ satisfies $ω(\cdot, \cdot)=g(J(\cdot), \cdot)$. Any symplectic manifold admits an almost Kähler structure and we refer to $(N, ω, g, J)$ as an almost Kähler manifold. In this article, we propose a natural evolution equation to investigate the deformation of Lagrangian submanifolds in almost Kähler manifolds. A metric and complex connection $\hn$ on $TN$ defines a generalized mean curvature vector field along any Lagrangian subman…
Streets and Tian introduced pluriclosed flow and symplectic curvature flow in recent years. Here we construct a curvature flow to unify these two flows. We show the short time existence of our flow and exhibit an obstruction to long time existence.
In this paper, we construct finite blow-up examples for symplectic mean curvature flows and we study properties of symplectic translating solitons. We prove that, the Kähler angle $α$ of a symplectic translating soliton with $\max |A|=1$ satisfies that $\sup |α|>\fracπ{4}\frac{|T|}{|T|+1}$ where $T$ is the direction in which the surface transltes.
In this paper, we show that the complete scalar-flat Kahler metrics constructed by Abreu and the author on strictly unbounded toric 4-dimensional orbifolds have finite $L^2$ norm of the full Riemannian tensor. In particular, this answers a question of Donaldon's on the corresponding Generalized Taub-NUT metric on $R^4$. This norm is explicitly determined when the underlying toric manifold is the minimal resolution of a cyclic singularity. In the Ricci-flat case corresponding to gravitational instantons, this recovers a recent result of Atiyah-Lebrun.
In this paper we study the singularities of the mean curvature flow from a symplectic surface or from a Lagrangian surface in a Kähler-Einstein surface. We prove that the blow-up flow $Σ_s^\infty$ at a singular point $(X_0, T_0)$ of a symplectic mean curvature flow $Σ_t$ or of a Lagrangian mean curvature flow $Σ_t$ is a non trivial minimal surface in ${\bf R}^4$, if $Σ_{-\infty}^\infty$ is connected.
In this paper, we mainly study the mean curvature flow in Kähler surfaces with positive holomorphic sectional curvatures. We prove that if the ratio of the maximum and the minimum of the holomorphic sectional curvatures is less than 2, then there exists a positive constant $δ$ depending on the ratio such that $\cosα\geqδ$ is preserved along the flow.
Let $M$ be a Kähler-Einstein surface with positive scalar curvature. If the initial surface is sufficiently close to a holomorphic curve, we show that the mean curvature flow has a global solution and it converges to a holomorphic curve.
We prove that for a mean curvature flow of a compact symplectic surface in a compact Kaehler-Einstein surface, the tangent cone at the first blow-up time consists of a finite union of more than two 2-planes in $R^4$ which are complex in a complex structure on $R^4$.
Let $(M,\bar{g})$ be a Kähler surface with a constant holomorphic sectional curvature $k>0$, and $Σ$ an immersed symplectic surface in $M$. Suppose $Σ$ evolves along the mean curvature flow in $M$. In this paper, we show that the symplectic mean curvature flow exists for long time and converges to a holomorphic curve if the initial surface satisfies $|A|^2\leq 2/3|H|^2+1/2 k$ and $\cosα\geq \frac{\sqrt{30}}{6}$ or $|A|^2\leq 2/3 |H|^2+4/5 k\cosα$ and $\cosα\ge251/265$.
Let X be a 4-manifold with contact boundary. We prove that the monopole invariants of X introduced by Kronheimer and Mrowka vanish under the following assumptions: (i) a connected component of the boundary of X carries a metric with positive scalar curvature and (ii) either b_2^+(X)>0 or the boundary of X is disconnected. As an application we show that the Poincare homology 3-sphere, oriented as the boundary of the positive E_8 plumbing, does not carry symplectically semi-fillable contact structures. This proves, in particular, a conjecture of Gompf, and provides the first example of a 3-manif…
This is an exposition of the Donaldson geometric flow on the space of symplectic forms on a closed smooth four-manifold, representing a fixed cohomology class. The original work appeared in [1].
In this paper, we mainly study the mean curvature flow in Kähler surfaces with positive holomorphic sectional curvatures. First, we prove that if the ratio $λ$ of the maximum and the minimum of the holomorphic sectional curvatures $< 2$, then there exists a positive constant $δ>\frac{29(λ-1)}{\sqrt{(48-24λ)^{2}+(29λ-29)^{2}}}$ such that $\cosα\geqδ$ is preserved along the flow, improving the main theorem in [LY]; Secondly, as similar as the main theorem in [HL0], we prove that when $\cosα$ is close to $1$ enough, then the symplectic mean curvature flow exists for long time and converges to a h…
In this paper we mainly study the type II singularities of the mean curvature flow from a symplectic surface or from an almost calibrated Lagrangian surface in a K ähler-Einstein surface. We show the relation between the maximum of the Kähler angle and the maximum of $|H|^2$ on the limit flow.
Let L->M be a Hermitian line bundle over a compact manifold. Write S for the space of all unitary connections in L whose curvatures define symplectic forms on M and G for the group of unitary bundle isometries of L, which acts on S by pull-back. The main observation of this note is that S carries a G-invariant symplectic structure, there is a moment map for the G-action and that this embeds the components of S as G_0-coadjoint orbits (where G_0 is the component of the identity). Restricting to the subgroup of G which covers the identity on M, we see that prescribing the volume form of a symple…
The twistor space of a Riemannian 4-manifold carries two almost complex structures, $J_+$ and $J_-$, and a natural closed 2-form $ω$. This article studies limits of manifolds for which $ω$ tames either $J_+$ or $J_-$. This amounts to a curvature inequality involving self-dual Weyl curvature and Ricci curvature, and which is satisfied, for example, by all anti-self-dual Einstein manifolds with non-zero scalar curvature. We prove that if a sequence of manifolds satisfying the curvature inequality converges to a hyperkähler limit X (in the $C^2$ pointed topology) then X cannot contain a holomorph…
Using dynamical stability of symplectic curvature flow, we show that on a compact Calabi-Yau manifold, any small symplectic deformation of a Kähler form remains Kähler.
In this paper we produce a lower bound for the number of periodic orbits of certain Hamiltonian vector fields near Bott-nondegenerate symplectic critical submanifolds. This result is then related to the problem of finding closed orbits of the motion of a charged low energy particle on a Riemannian manifold under the influence of a magnetic field
We continue studying a parabolic flow of almost Kähler structures introduced by Streets and Tian which naturally extends Kähler-Ricci flow onto symplectic manifolds. In the system of primarily the symplectic form, almost complex structure, Chern torsion and Chern connection, we establish new formulas for the evolutions of canonical quantities, in particular those related to the Chern connection. Using this, we give an extended characterization of fixed points of the flow originally performed by Streets and Tian.
Let (M, g, omega) be a compact, almost-Kaehler Einstein 4-manifold of negative star-scalar curvature. Then (M, omega) is a MINIMAL symplectic 4-manifold of general type. In particular, M cannot be differentiably decomposed as a connected sum N # (-CP_2).
For a closed smooth manifold $M$ admitting a symplectic structure, we define a smooth topological invariant $Z(M)$ using almost-Kähler metrics, i.e. Riemannian metrics compatible with symplectic structures. We also introduce $Z(M, [[ω]])$ depending on symplectic deformation equivalence class $[[ω]]$. We first prove that there exists a 6-dimensional smooth manifold $M$ with more than one deformation equivalence classes with different signs of $Z(M, [[ω]] )$. Using $Z$ invariants, we set up a Kazdan-Warner type problem of classifying symplectic manifolds into three categories. We finally prove t…
In this paper we will perturb the scalar curvature of compact Kahler manifolds by incorporating it with higher Chern forms, and then show that the perturbed scalar curvature has many common properties with the unperturbed scalar curvature. In particular the perturbed scalar curvature becomes a moment map, with respect to a perturbed symplectic structure, on the space of all complex structures on a fixed symplectic manifold, which extends the results of Donaldson and Fujiki on the unperturbed case.
We prove that a compact 4-manifold which supports a circle-invariant fat SO(3)-bundle is diffeomorphic to either S^4 or CP^2-bar. The proof involves studying the resulting Hamiltonian circle action on an associated symplectic 6-manifold. Applying our result to the twistor bundle of Riemannian 4-manifolds shows that S^4 and CP^2-bar are the only 4-manifolds admitting circle-invariant metrics solving a certain curvature inequality. This can be seen as an analogue of Hsiang-Kliener's theorem that only S^4 and CP^2 admit circle-invariant metrics of positive sectional curvature.
From a view point of the moment map, we shall introduce the notion of Einstein-Hermitian generalized connections over a generalized Kähler manifold of symplectic type. We show that moduli spaces of Einstein-Hermitian generalized connections arise as the Kähler quotients. The deformation complex of Einstein-Hermitian generalized connections is an elliptic complex and it turns out that the smooth part of the moduli space is a finite dimensional Kähler manifold. The canonical line bundle over a generalized Kähler manifold of symplectic type has the canonical generalized connection and its curvatu…
A classical result of D. McDuff asserts that a simply-connected complete Kaehler manifold $(M,g,ω)$ with non positive sectional curvature admits global symplectic coordinates through a symplectomorphism $Ψ: M\rightarrow R^{2n}$ (where $n$ is the complex dimension of $M$), satisfying the following property (proved by E. Ciriza): the image $Ψ(T)$ of any complex totally geodesic submanifold $T\subset M$ through the point $p$ such that $Ψ(p)=0$, is a complex linear subspace of $C^n \simeq R^{2n}$. The aim of this paper is to exhibit, for all positive integers $n$, examples of $n$-dimensional compl…
Let $(M,\overline{g})$ be a Kähler surface, and $Σ$ an immersed surface in $M$. The Kähler angle of $Σ$ in $M$ is introduced by Chern-Wolfson \cite{CW}. Let $(M,\overline{g}(t))$ evolve along the Kähler-Ricci flow, and $Σ_t$ in $(M,\overline{g}(t))$ evolve along the mean curvature flow. We show that the Kähler angle $α(t)$ satisfies the evolution equation: $$ (\frac{\partial}{\partial t}-Δ)\cosα=|\overline\nabla J_{Σ_t}|^2\cosα+R\sin^2α\cosα, $$ where $R$ is the scalar curvature of $(M, \overline{g}(t))$. The equation implies that, if the initial surface is symplectic (Lagrangian), then along …
The aim of this paper is to study self-similar solutions to the symplectic cuvature flow on 6-dimensional nilmanifolds. For this purpose, we focus our attention in the family of symplectic Two- and Three-step nilpotent Lie algebras admitting a "minimal compatible metric" and we give a complete classification of these algebras together with their respective metric. Such classification is given by using our generalization of Nikolayevsky's nice basis criterium (arXiv:1301.4949), which will be repeated here in the context of canonical compatible metrics for geometric structures on nilmanifolds, f…
For Hamiltonian flows we establish the existence of periodic orbits on a sequence of level sets approaching a Bott-nondegenerate symplectic extremum of the Hamiltonian. As a consequence, we show that a charge on a compact manifold with a nondegenerate (i.e. symplectic) magnetic field has periodic orbits on a sequence of energy levels converging to zero.
For a symplectic manifold admitting a metaplectic structure (a symplectic analogue of the Riemannian spin structure), we construct a sequence consisting of differential operators using a symplectic torsion-free affine connection. All but one of these operators are of first order. The first order ones are symplectic analogues of the twistor operators known from Riemannian spin geometry. We prove that under the condition the symplectic Weyl curvature tensor field of the symplectic connection vanishes, the mentioned sequence forms a complex. This gives rise to a new complex for the so called Ricc…
We consider a continuous curve of self-adjoint Fredholm extensions of a curve of closed symmetric operators with fixed minimal domain $D_m$ and fixed {\it intermediate} domain $D_W$. Our main example is a family of symmetric generalized operators of Dirac type on a compact manifold with boundary with varying well-posed boundary conditions. Here $D_W$ is the first Sobolev space and $D_m$ the subspace of sections with support in the interior. We express the spectral flow of the operator curve by the Maslov index of a corresponding curve of Fredholm pairs of Lagrangian subspaces of the quotient H…
We show pluriclosed flow preserves the Hermitian-symplectic structures. And we observe that it can actually become a flow of Hermitian-symplectic forms when an extra evolution equation determined by the Bismut-Ricci form is considered. Moreover, we get a topological obstruction to the long-time existence in arbitrary dimension.
Given an SO(3)-bundle with connection, the associated two-sphere bundle carries a natural closed 2-form. Asking that this be symplectic gives a curvature inequality first considered by Reznikov. We study this inequality in the case when the base has dimension four, with three main aims. Firstly, we use this approach to construct symplectic six-manifolds with c_1=0 which are never Kahler; e.g., we produce such manifolds with b_1=0=b_3 and also with c_2.omega <0, answering questions posed by Smith-Thomas-Yau. Examples come from Riemannian geometry, via the Levi-Civita connection on Lambda^+. The…
On a pre-quantized symplectic manifold, we show that the symplectic Futaki invariant, which is an obstruction to the existence of constant Hermitian scalar curvature almost-Kähler metrics, is actually an asymptotic invariant. This allows us to deduce a lower bound for the L^2-norm of the Hermitian scalar curvature as obtained by S. Donaldson \cite{Don} in the Kähler case.
Several geometric flows on symplectic manifolds are introduced which are potentially of interest in symplectic geometry and topology. They are motivated by the Type IIA flow and T-duality between flows in symplectic geometry and flows in complex geometry. Examples include the Hitchin gradient flow on symplectic manifolds, and a new flow which is called the dual Ricci flow.
We show that if K: P \to R is an autonomous Hamiltonian on a symplectic manifold (P,Ω) which attains 0 as a Morse-Bott nondegenerate minimum along a symplectic submanifold M, and if c_1(TP)|_M vanishes in real cohomology, then the Hamiltonian flow of K has contractible periodic orbits with bounded period on all sufficiently small energy levels. As a special case, if the geodesic flow on the cotangent bundle of M is twisted by a symplectic magnetic field form, then the resulting flow has contractible periodic orbits on all low energy levels. These results were proven by Ginzburg and Gürel when …
We encode the variation structure of a quasihomogeneous polynomial with an isolated singularity as introduced by Nemethi in a set of spectral flows of the signature operator on the Milnor bundle by varying global elliptic boundary conditions in a specific way using the quasihomogeneous circle action on the Brieskorn lattice. For this, we use adiabatic techniques and well-known results on spectral flow and Maslov index. Furthermore we interpret the inequality of a certain member of this family of spectral flows with a spectral flow induced by a Reeb flow on the boundary of the Milnor fibre as g…
Let M be a compact, connected symplectic 2n-dimensional manifold on which an(n-2)-dimensional torus T acts effectively and Hamiltonianly. Under the assumption that there is an effective complementary 2-torus acting on M with symplectic orbits, we show that the Duistermaat-Heckman measure of the T-action is log-concave. This verifies the logarithmic concavity conjecture for a class of inequivalent T-actions. Then we use this conjecture to prove the following: if there is an effective symplectic action of an (n-2)-dimensional torus T on a compact, connected symplectic 2n-dimensional manifold tha…
In Kähler geometry, Fujiki--Donaldson show that the scalar curvature arises as the moment map for Hamiltonian diffeomorphisms. In generalized Kähler geometry, one does not have suitable notions of Levi-Civita connection and curvature, however there still exists a precise framework for a moment map and the scalar curvature is defined as the moment map. Then a fundamental question is to understand the existence or non-existence of generalized Kähler structures with constant scalar curvature. In the paper, we study the Lie algebra of automorphisms of a generalized complex manifold. We assume that…
We study evolution of (strong Kähler with torsion) SKT structures via the pluriclosed flow on complex nilmanifolds, i.e. on compact quotients of simply connected nilpotent Lie groups by discrete subgroups endowed with an invariant complex structure. Adapting to our case the techniques introduced by Jorge Lauret for studying Ricci flow on homogeneous spaces we show that for SKT Lie algebras the pluriclosed flow is equivalent to a bracket flow and we prove a long time existence result in the nilpotent case. Finally, we introduce a natural flow for evolving tamed symplectic forms on a complex man…
Let Σbe a compact oriented surface immersed in a four dimensional Kähler-Einstein manifold M. We consider the evolution of Σin the direction of its mean curvature vector. It is proved that being symplectic is preserved along the flow and the flow does not develop type I singularity. When M has two parallel Kähler forms ω' and ω'' that determine different orientations andΣis symplectic with respect to both ω' and ω'', we prove the mean curvature flow of Σexists smoothly for all time. In the positive curvature case, the flow indeed converges at infinity.
With the aid of the theory of Jordan triple systems, we construct an explicit bi-symplectomorphism between a Hermitian symmetric space of non-compact type and $\C^n$ equipped with both the flat Kaehler-form and the Fubini-Study form. Our symplectomorphism is an explicit version of the symplectomorphism between Kaehler manifolds with non positive radial curvature and $\C^n$, whose existence was proved by Dusa McDuff. As a byproduct we get an interesting characterization of the Bergman form on a Hermitian space in terms of its restriction to classical Hermitian symmetric spaces of noncompact typ…
We study the transversal hard Lefschetz theorem on a transversely symplectic foliation. This article extends the results of transversally symplectic flows (H.K.~Pak, "Transversal harmonic theory for transversally symplectic flows", J. Aust. Math. Soc. 84 (2008), 233--245) to the general transversely symplectic foliation.
