To every closed subset $X$ of a symplectic manifold $(M,ω)$ we associate a natural group of Hamiltonian diffeomorphisms $Ham(X,ω)$. We equip this group with a semi-norm $\Vert\cdot\Vert^{X,ω}$, generalizing the Hofer norm. We discuss $Ham(X,ω)$ and $\Vert\cdot\Vert^{X,ω}$ if $X$ is a symplectic or isotropic submanifold. The main result involves the relative Hofer diameter of $X$ in $M$. Its first part states that for the unit sphere in $R^{2n}$ this diameter is bounded below by $\frac\pi2$, if $n\geq2$. Its second part states that for $n\geq2$ and $d\geq n+1$ there exists a compact set in $R^{2n}$ of Hausdorff dimension at most $d$, with relative Hofer diameter bounded below by $π/k(n,d)$, where $k(n,d)$ is an explicitly defined integer.
Using a "Hodge decomposition" of symplectic isotopies on a compact symplectic manifold $(M,ω)$, we construct a norm on the identity component in the group of all symplectic diffeomorphisms of $(M,ω)$ whose restriction to the group $Ham(M,ω)$ of hamiltonian diffeomorphisms is bounded from above by the Hofer norm. Moreover, $Ham(M,ω)$ is closed in $Symp(M,ω)$ equipped with the topology induced by the extended norm. We give an application to the $C^0$ symplectic topology. We also discuss extensions of Oh's spectral distance.
We use spectral invariants in Lagrangian Floer theory in order to show that there exist \emph{isometric} embeddings of normed linear spaces (finite or infinite dimensional, depending on the case) into the space of Hamiltonian deformations of certain Lagrangian submanifolds in tame symplectically aspherical manifolds. In addition to providing a new class of examples in which the Lagrangian Hofer metric can be computed explicitly, we refine and generalize some known results about it.
In this note we show that one open four dimensional ellipsoid embeds symplectically into another if and only the ECH capacities of the first are no larger than those of the second. This proves a conjecture due to Hofer. The argument uses the equivalence of the ellipsoidal embedding problem with a ball embedding problem that was recently established by McDuff. Its method is inspired by Hutchings' recent results on embedded contact homology (ECH) capacities but does not use them.
We remark that, as in the symplectic case, the Hofer norm on the Hamiltonian group of a Poisson manifold is non-degenerate. The proof is a straightforward application of tools from symplectic topology.
We introduce the notion of a symplectic capacity relative to a coisotropic submanifold of a symplectic manifold, and we construct two examples of such capacities through modifications of the Hofer-Zehnder capacity. As a consequence, we obtain a non-squeezing theorem for symplectic embeddings relative to coisotropic constraints and existence results for leafwise chords on energy surfaces.
We use the minimal coupling procedure of Sternberg and Weinstein and our pseudo-symplectic capacity theory to prove that every closed symplectic submanifold in any symplectic manifold has an open neighborhood with finite ($π_1$-sensitive) Hofer-Zehnder symplectic capacity. Consequently, the Weinstein conjecture holds near closed symplectic submanifolds in any symplectic manifold.
We compare Hofer's geometries on two spaces associated with a closed symplectic manifold M. The first space is the group of Hamiltonian diffeomorphisms. The second space L consists of all Lagrangian submanifolds of $M \times M$ which are exact Lagrangian isotopic to the diagonal. We show that in the case of a closed symplectic manifold with $π_2(M) = 0$, the canonical embedding of Ham(M) into L, f $\mapsto$ graph(f) is not an isometric embedding, although it preserves Hofer's length of smooth paths.
Hofer's metric is a bi-invariant metric on Hamiltonian diffeomorphism groups. Our main result shows that the topology induced from Hofer's metric is weaker than C^1-topology if the symplectic manifold is closed.
We introduce the concept of Hofer-Zehnder $G$-semicapacity (or $G$-sensitive Hofer-Zehnder capacity) and prove that given a geometrically bounded symplectic manifold $(M,ω)$ and an open subset $N \subset M$ endowed with a Hamiltonian free circle action $ϕ$ then $N$ has bounded Hofer-Zehnder $G_ϕ$-semicapacity, where $G_ϕ\subset π_1(N)$ is the subgroup generated by the homotopy class of the orbits of $ϕ$. In particular, $N$ has bounded Hofer-Zehnder capacity. We give two types of applications of the main result. Firstly, we prove that the cotangent bundle of a compact manifold endowed with a fr…
The purpose of this note is to make some connection between the sub-Riemannian geometry on Carnot-Caratheodory groups and symplectic geometry. We shall concentrate here on the Heisenberg group, although it is transparent that almost everything can be done on a general Carnot-Caratheodory group. Such generalisations will be the subject of a forthcoming note.
Following a question of F. Le Roux, we consider a system of invariants $l_A : H_1(M; \mathbb{Z})\to\mathbb{R}$ of a symplectic surface $M$. These invariants compute the minimal Hofer energy needed to translate a disk of area $A$ along a given homology class and can be seen as a symplectic analogue of the Riemannian length spectrum. When $M$ has genus zero we also construct Hofer- and $C_0$-continuous quasimorphisms $Ham(M) \to H_1(M;\mathbb{R})$ that compute trajectories of periodic non-displaceable disks.
This paper continues to carry out a foundational study of Banyaga topologies of a closed symplectic manifold [3]. Our intension in writing this paper is to provide several symplectic analogues of some results found in the study of Hamiltonian dynamics. Especially, without appealing to the positivity of the symplectic displacement energy, we point out the impact of the $L^\infty$ version of Banyaga Hofer-like metric in the investigation of the symplectic nature of the $C^0-$limit of a sequence of symplectic maps. This result is the symplectic analogue of a result that was proved in Hofer-Zehnde…
We obtain estimates showing that on monotone symplectic manifolds (asymptotic) spectral invariants of Hamiltonians which vanish on a non-empty open set, U, descend to Ham_c(M\setminus U) from its universal cover. Furthermore, we show these invariants and are continuous with respect to the C^0-topology on Ham_c(M\setminus U). We apply these results to Hofer geometry and establish unboundedness of the Hofer diameter of $Ham_c(M\setminus U)$ for stably displaceable $U$. We also answer a question of F. Le Roux about $C^0$-continuity properties of the Hofer metric.
In this paper we first apply the chain level Floer theory to the study of Hofer's geometry of Hamiltonian diffeomorphism group in the cases without quantum contribution: we prove that any quasi-autonomous Hamiltonian path on weakly exact symplectic manifolds or any autonomous Hamiltonian path on arbitrary symplectic manifolds is length minimizing in its homotopy class with fixed ends, as long as it has a fixed maximum and a fixed minimum which are not over-twisted and all of its contractible periodic orbits of period less than one are sufficiently $C^1$-small. Next we give a construction of ne…
Hofer's norm (metric) is an important and interesting topic in symplectic geometry. In the present paper, we define fragmented Hofer's norms which are Hofer's norms controlled by fragmentation norms and give some observations on fragmented Hofer's norms.
We prove the elementary but surprising fact that the Hofer distance between two closed subsets of a symplectic manifold can be expressed in terms of the restrictions of Hamiltonians to one of the subsets; this helps explain certain energy-capacity inequalities that appeared recently in work of Borman-McLean and Humiliere-Leclercq-Seyfaddini. We also build on arXiv:1201.2926 to obtain new vanishing results for the Hofer distance between subsets, applicable for instance to singular analytic subvarieties of Kahler manifolds.
Roughly twenty five years ago Hofer asked: can the cylinder B^2(1) \times \mathbb{R}^{2(n-1)} be symplectically embedded into B^{2(n-1)}(R) \times \mathbb{R}^2 for some R>0? We show that this is the case if R \geq \sqrt{2^{n-1}+2^{n-2}-2}. We deduce that there are no intermediate capacities, between 1-capacities, first constructed by Gromov in 1985, and n-capacities, answering another question of Hofer. In 2008, Guth reached the same conclusion under the additional hypothesis that the intermediate capacities should satisfy the exhaustion property.
We use Floer homology to study the Hofer-Zehnder capacity of neighborhoods near a closed symplectic submanifold M of a geometrically bounded and symplectically aspherical ambient manifold. We prove that, when the unit normal bundle of M is homologically trivial in degree dim(M) (for example, if codim(M) > dim(M)), a refined version of the Hofer-Zehnder capacity is finite for all open sets close enough to M. We compute this capacity for certain tubular neighborhoods of M by using a squeezing argument in which the algebraic framework of Floer theory is used to detect nontrivial periodic orbits. …
We find bounds for the Hofer-Zehnder capacity of coadjoint orbits of compact Lie groups with respect to the Kostant--Kirillov--Souriau symplectic form in terms of the combinatorics of their Bruhat graph. We show that our bounds are sharp for coadjoint orbits of the unitary group and equal to the diameter of a weighted Cayley graph.
This paper defines symplectic scale manifolds based on Hofer-Wysocki-Zehnder's scale calculus. We introduce Hamiltonian vector fields and flows on these by narrowing down sc-smoothness to what we denote by strong sc-smoothness, a concept which effectively formalizes the desired smoothness properties for Hamiltonian functions. We show the concept to be invariant under sc-smooth symplectomorphisms, whence it is compatible with Hofer's scale manifolds. We develop and verify the theory at the hand of the free Schrödinger equation.
Let $(M,ω)$ be a symplectic manifold and $U\subseteq M$ an open subset. We study the natural inclusion of the compactly supported Hamiltonian group of $U$ in the compactly supported Hamiltonian group of $M$. The main result is an upper bound for this map in terms of the Hofer norms for $U$ and $M$. Applications are upper bounds on the asymptotic Hofer-Lipschitz constant and the relative Hofer diameter of $U$. The first bound is often sharp and the second one is often sharp up to a factor of 2.
In this paper, we provide a bound for the generalized Hofer energy of punctured $J$-holomorphic curves in almost complex manifolds with asymptotically cylindrical ends. As an application, we prove a version of Gromov's Monotonicity Theorem with multiplicity. Namely, for a closed symplectic manifold $(M,ω)$ with a compatible almost complex structure $J$ and a ball $B$ in $M,$ there exists a constant $\hbar>0,$ such that any $J$-holomorphic curve $\tilde{u}$ passing through the center of $B$ for $k$ times (counted with multiplicity) with boundary mapped to $\partial B$ has symplectic area $\int_…
We show that if (M,ω) is a closed symplectic manifold which admits a nontrivial Hamiltonian vector field all of whose contractible closed orbits are constant, then Hofer's metric on the group of Hamiltonian diffeomorphisms of (M,ω) has infinite diameter, and indeed admits infinite-dimensional quasi-isometrically embedded normed vector spaces. A similar conclusion applies to Hofer's metric on various spaces of Lagrangian submanifolds, including those Hamiltonian-isotopic to the diagonal in M x M when M satisfies the above dynamical condition. To prove this, we use the properties of a Floer-theo…
Let $(M,ω)$ be an aspherical symplectic manifold, which is closed or convex. Let $U$ be an open set in $M$, which admits a circle action generated by an autonomous Hamiltonian $H \in C^\infty(U)$, such that each orbit of the circle action is not contractible in $M$. Under these assumptions, we prove that the Hofer-Zehnder capacity of $U$ is bounded by the Hofer norm of $H$. The proof uses a variant of the energy-capacity inequality, which is proved by the theory of action selectors.
We study the relationship between a homological capacity $c_{\mathrm{SH}^+}(W)$ for Liouville domains $W$ defined using positive symplectic homology and the existence of periodic orbits for Hamiltonian systems on $W$: If the positive symplectic homology of $W$ is non-zero, then the capacity yields a finite upper bound to the $π_1$-sensitive Hofer-Zehnder capacity of $W$ relative to its skeleton and a certain class of Hamiltonian diffeomorphisms of $W$ has infinitely many non-trivial contractible periodic points. En passant, we give an upper bound for the spectral capacity of $W$ in terms of th…
This paper is devoted to the construction of analogues of higher Ekeland-Hofer symplectic capacities for $P$-symmetric subsets in the standard symplectic space $(\mathbb{R}^{2n},ω_0)$, which is motivated by Long and Dong's study $P$-symmetric closed characteristics on $P$-symmetric convex bodies. We study the relationship between these capacities and other capacities, and give some computation examples. Moreover, we also define higher real symmetric Ekeland-Hofer capacities as a complement of Jin and the second named author's recent study of the real symmetric analogue about the first Ekeland-…
Stefan M$\ddot{\mathrm{u}}$ller posed the problem "Do Hofer's metrics on the group of Hamiltonian diffeomorphism and the one of Hamiltonian homeomorphisms (Hameomorphisms) correspond?". Let $(M,ω)$ be a compact exact symplectic manifold. We prove that the group of Hamiltonian homeomorphisms is not a simple group if the positive answer of M$\ddot{\mathrm{u}}$ller's question holds . To prove this results, we introduce fragmented Hofer's norms on a normal subgroup of the group of Hamiltonian homeomorphisms.
This paper meticulously revisit and study the flux geometry of any compact oriented manifold $(M; W)$. We generalize several well-known factorization results, exhibit some orbital conditions for the study of flux geometry, give a proof of the discreteness of the flux group for volume-preserving diffeomorphisms, show that any smooth path in the kernel of the flux is a vanishing flux path, and show that the kernel of the flux for volume-preserving diffeomorphisms is $C^1$closed inside the group of all volume-preserving diffeomorphisms isotopic to the identity map:This recovers several results fr…
We prove that on certain closed symplectic manifolds a $C^1$-generic cyclic subgroup of the universal cover of the group of Hamiltonian diffeomorphisms is undistorted with respect to the Hofer metric.
We introduce the concept of pseudo symplectic capacities which is a mild generalization of that of symplectic capacities. As a generalization of the Hofer-Zehnder capacity we construct a Hofer-Zehnder type pseudo symplectic capacity and estimate it in terms of Gromov-Witten invariants. The (pseudo) symplectic capacities of Grassmannians and some product symplectic manifolds are computed. As applications we first derive some general nonsqueezing theorems that generalize and unite many previous versions, then prove the Weinstein conjecture for cotangent bundles over a large class of symplectic u…
In this note we consider the following conjecture: given any closed symplectic manifold $M$, there is a sufficiently small real positive number $ρ$ such that the open ball of radius $ρ$ in the Hofer metric centered at the identity on the group of Hamiltonian diffeomorphisms of $M$ is contractible, where the retraction takes place in that ball -- this is the strong version of the conjecture -- or inside the ambient group of Hamiltonian diffeomorphisms of $M$ -- this is the weak version of the conjecture. We prove several results that support that weak form of the conjecture.
We prove that the displacement energy of a stable coisotropic submanifold is bounded away from zero if the ambient symplectic manifold is closed, rational and satisfies a mild topological condition.
For subsets in the standard symplectic space $(\mathbb{R}^{2n},ω_0)$ whose closures are intersecting with coisotropic subspace $\mathbb{R}^{n,k}$ we construct relative versions of the Ekeland-Hofer capacities of the subsets with respect to $\mathbb{R}^{n,k}$, establish representation formulas for such capacities of bounded convex domains intersecting with $\mathbb{R}^{n,k}$. We also prove a product formula and a fact that the value of this capacity on a hypersurface $\mathcal{S}$ of restricted contact type containing the origin is equal to the action of a generalized leafwise chord on $\mathca…
We exhibit many examples of closed symplectic manifolds on which there is an autonomous Hamiltonian whose associated flow has no nonconstant periodic orbits (the only previous explicit example in the literature was the torus T^2n (n\geq 2) with an irrational symplectic structure). The underlying smooth manifolds of our examples include, for instance: the K3 surface and also infinitely many smooth manifolds homeomorphic but not diffeomorphic to it; infinitely many minimal four-manifolds having any given finitely-presented group as their fundamental group; and simply connected minimal four-manif…
We use the criteria of Lalonde and McDuff to determine a new class of examples of length minimizing paths in the group $Ham(M)$. For a compact symplectic manifold $M$ of dimension two or four, we show that a path in $Ham(M)$, generated by an autonomous Hamiltonian and starting at the identity, which induces no non-constant closed trajectories of points in $M$, is length minimizing among homotopic paths. The major step in the proof involves determining an upper bound for the Hofer-Zehnder capacity for symplectic manifolds of the type $(M \times D(a))$ where $M$ is compact and has dimension two …
Chekanov showed that the Hofer norm on the Hamiltonian diffeomorphism group of a geometrically bounded symplectic manifold induces a nondegenerate metric on the orbit of any compact Lagrangian submanifold under the group. In this paper we consider the orbits of more general submanifolds. We show that, for the Chekanov-Hofer pseudometric on the orbit of a closed submanifold to be a genuine metric, it is necessary for the submanifold to be coisotropic, and we show that this condition is sufficient under various additional geometric assumptions. At the other extreme, we show that the image of a g…
Let $M$ be a closed Fano symplectic manifold with a semifree Hamiltonian circle action with isolated maximum. We compute the Gromov width and the Hofer-Zehnder capacity of $M$ using a moment map.
In this work, we establish new rigidity results for the Maslov class of Lagrangian submanifolds in large classes of closed and convex symplectic manifolds. Our main result establishes upper bounds for the minimal Maslov number of displaceable Lagrangian submanifolds which are product manifolds whose factors each admit a metric of negative sectional curvature. Such Lagrangian submanifolds exist in every symplectic manifold of dimension greater than six or equal to four. The proof utilizes the relations between closed geodesics on the Lagrangian, the periodic orbits of geometric Hamiltonian flow…
This note discusses some geometrically defined seminorms on the group $\Ham(M, ω)$ of Hamiltonian diffeomorphisms of a closed symplectic manifold $(M, ω)$, giving conditions under which they are nondegenerate and explaining their relation to the Hofer norm. As a consequence we show that if an element in $\Ham(M, ω)$ is sufficiently close to the identity in the $C^{2}$-topology then it may be joined to the identity by a path whose Hofer length is minimal among all paths, not just among paths in the same homotopy class relative to endpoints. Thus, true geodesics always exist for the Hofer norm. …
Let $M$ be a compact manifold with an effective semi-free circle action whose fixed point set has trivial normal bundle. We prove that its cotangent bundle endowed with the canonical symplectic form has bounded Hofer-Zehnder sensitive capacity. We give several examples like the product of any compact manifold with $§^n$ or a connected sum $\CP^n # ... # \CP^n$.
Inspired by the work of G. Lu on pseudo symplectic capacities we obtain several results on the Gromov width and the Hofer--Zehnder capacity of Hermitian symmetric spaces of compact type. Our results and proofs extend those obtained by Lu for complex Grassmannians to Hermitian symmetric spaces of compact type. We also compute the Gromov width and the Hofer--Zehnder capacity for Cartan domains and their products.
Given a closed monotone symplectic manifold $M$, we define certain characteristic cohomology classes of the free loop space $L \text {Ham}(M, ω)$ with values in $QH_* (M)$, and their $S^1$ equivariant version. These classes generalize the Seidel representation and satisfy versions of the axioms for Chern classes. In particular there is a Whitney sum formula, which gives rise to a graded ring homomorphism from the ring $H_{*} (L\text {Ham}(M, ω), \mathbb{Q})$, with its Pontryagin product to $QH_{2n+*} (M)$ with its quantum product. As an application we prove an extension of a theorem of McDuff …
The main theme of this paper is a relative version of the almost existence theorem for periodic orbits of autonomous Hamiltonian systems. We show that almost all low levels of a function on a geometrically bounded symplectically aspherical manifold carry contractible periodic orbits of the Hamiltonian flow, provided that the function attains its minimum along a closed symplectic submanifold. As an immediate consequence, we obtain the existence of contractible periodic orbits on almost all low energy levels for twisted geodesic flows with symplectic magnetic field. We give examples of functions…
We determine the homotopy type of isotropic torus complements in closed contact manifolds in terms of Reeb dynamics of special contact forms. For that we utilize holomorphic curve techniques known from symplectic field theory as Gromov-Hofer compactness and localized transversality on non-compact contact manifolds.
We show, by an elementary and explicit construction, that the group of Hamiltonian diffeomorphisms of certain symplectic manifolds, endowed with Hofer's metric, contains subgroups quasi-isometric to Euclidean spaces of arbitrary dimension.
We prove that if a Hamiltonian diffeomorphism of a closed monotone symplectic manifold with semisimple quantum homology has more contractible fixed points, counted homologically, than the total dimension of the homology of the manifold, then it must have an infinite number of contractible periodic points. This constitutes a higher-dimensional homological generalization of a celebrated result of Franks from 1992, as conjectured by Hofer and Zehnder in 1994.
Given a closed symplectic manifold $(M,ω)$ we introduce a certain quantity associated to a tuple of conjugacy classes in the universal cover of the group ${\hbox{\it Ham}} (M,ω)$ by means of the Hofer metric on ${\hbox{\it Ham}} (M,ω)$. We use pseudo-holomorphic curves involved in the definition of the multiplicative structure on the Floer cohomology of a symplectic manifold $(M,ω)$ to estimate this quantity in terms of actions of some periodic orbits of related Hamiltonian flows. As a corollary we get a new way to obtain Agnihotri-Belkale-Woodward inequalities for eigenvalues of products of u…
This is one in a series of papers devoted to the foundations of Symplectic Field Theory sketched in [Y Eliashberg, A Givental and H Hofer, Introduction to Symplectic Field Theory, Geom. Funct. Anal. Special Volume, Part II (2000) 560--673]. We prove compactness results for moduli spaces of holomorphic curves arising in Symplectic Field Theory. The theorems generalize Gromov's compactness theorem in [M Gromov, Pseudo-holomorphic curves in symplectic manifolds, Invent. Math. 82 (1985) 307--347] as well as compactness theorems in Floer homology theory, [A Floer, The unregularized gradient flow of…
