First steps into the world of systolic inequalities: From Riemannian to symplectic geometry
Gabriele Benedetti
备注：
acknowledgements updated, 31 pages, 9 figures, these notes are an expanded version of two talks given at the Dutsch Differential Topology and Geometry Seminar on November 27, 2020
Our aim is to give a friendly introduction for students to systolic inequalities. We will stress the relationships between the classical formulation for Riemannian metrics and more recent developments related to symplectic measurements and the Viterbo conjecture. This will give us a perfect excuse to introduce the reader to some important ideas in Riemannian and symplectic geometry.
The aim of this paper is to formulate a local systolic inequality for odd-symplectic forms (also known as Hamiltonian structures) and to establish it in some basic cases. Let $Ω$ be an odd-symplectic form on an oriented closed manifold $Σ$ of odd dimension. We say that $Ω$ is Zoll if the trajectories of the flow given by $Ω$ are the orbits of a free $S^1$-action. After defining the volume of $Ω$ and the action of its periodic orbits, we prove that the volume and the action satisfy a polynomial equation, provided $Ω$ is Zoll. This builds the equality case of a conjectural systolic inequality fo…
We prove that the systolic ratio of a sphere of revolution $S$ does not exceed $π$ and equals $π$ if and only if $S$ is Zoll. More generally, we consider the rotationally symmetric Finsler metrics on a sphere of revolution which are defined by shifting the tangent unit circles by a Killing vector field. We prove that in this class of metrics the systolic ratio does not exceed $π$ and equals $π$ if and only if the metric is Riemannian and Zoll.
For a Riemannian metric $g$ on the two-sphere, let $\ell_{\min}(g)$ be the length of the shortest closed geodesic and $\ell_{\max}(g)$ be the length of the longest simple closed geodesic. We prove that if the curvature of $g$ is positive and sufficiently pinched, then the sharp systolic inequalities \[ \ell_{\rm min}(g)^2 \leq π\ {\rm Area}(S^2,g) \leq \ell_{\max}(g)^2, \] hold, and each of these two inequalities is an equality if and only if the metric $g$ is Zoll. The first inequality answers positively a conjecture of Babenko and Balacheff. The proof combines arguments from Riemannian and s…
We show that suitably defined systolic ratios are globally bounded from above on the space of rotationally symmetric spindle orbifolds and that the upper bound is attained precisely at so-called Besse metrics, i.e. Riemannian orbifold metrics all of whose geodesics are closed.
Let $Σ$ be a connected closed three-manifold, and let $t_Σ$ be the order of the torsion subgroup of $H_1(Σ;\mathbb Z)$. For a contact form $α$ on $Σ$, we denote by $\mathrm{Volume}(α)$ the contact volume of $α$, and by $T_{\min}(α)$ and $T_{\max}(α)$ the minimal period and the maximal period of prime periodic orbits of the Reeb flow of $α$ respectively. We say that $α$ is Zoll if its Reeb flow generates a free $S^1$-action on $Σ$. We prove that every Zoll contact form $α_*$ on $Σ$ admits a $C^3$-neighbourhood $\mathcal U$ in the space of contact forms such that \[ t_ΣT_{\min}(α)^2\leq \mathrm{…
We establish combinatorial versions of various classical systolic inequalities. For a smooth triangulation of a closed smooth manifold, the minimal number of edges in a homotopically non-trivial loop contained in the $1$-skeleton gives an integer called the combinatorial systole. The number of top-dimensional simplices in the triangulation gives another integer called the combinatorial volume. We show that a class of smooth manifolds satisfies a systolic inequality for all Riemannian metrics if and only if it satisfies a corresponding combinatorial systolic inequality for all smooth triangulat…
In this paper we determine conditions of existence of an induced Riemannian structure on the symplectic quotient of a symplectic and Riemannian manifold following the action of a Lie group acting upon it in a hamiltonian way with equivariant momentum mapping.
A compact manifold is called Bieberbach if it carries a flat Riemannian metric. Bieberbach manifolds are aspherical, therefore the supremum of their systolic ratio, over the set of Riemannian metrics, is finite by a fundamental result of M. Gromov. We study the optimal systolic ratio of compact of $3$-dimensional orientable Bieberbach manifolds which are not tori, and prove that it cannot be realized by a flat metric. We also highlight a metric that we construct on one type of such manifolds ($C_2$) which has interesting geometric properties : it is extremal in its conformal class and the syst…
We prove the $3$-manifold $\RP^3 \# \RP^3$ is of $\Z_{2}$-coefficient homology $(1, 2)$-systolic freedom. Given a Riemannian metric on $\RP^{3}\# \RP^{3}$, we define $\Z_{2}$-coefficient homology $1$-systole as the infimum of lengths of all nonseparating geodesic loops representing nontrivial classes in $H_{1}(\RP^3\#\RP^3; \Z_{2})$. The $\Z_{2}$-coefficient homology $2$-systole is defined to be the infimum of areas of all nonseparating surfaces representing nontrivial classes in $H_{2}(\RP^{3}\#\RP^{3}; \Z_2)$. In the paper we show that there exists a sequence of Riemannian metrics on $\RP^{3…
We present a new optimal systolic inequality for a closed Riemannian manifold X, which generalizes a number of earlier inequalities, including that of C. Loewner. We characterize the boundary case of equality in terms of the geometry of the Abel-Jacobi map, A_X, of X. For an extremal metric, the map A_X turns out to be a Riemannian submersion with minimal fibers, onto a flat torus. We characterize the base of J_X in terms of an extremal problem for Euclidean lattices, studied by A.-M. Bergé and J. Martinet. Given a closed manifold X that admits a submersion F to its Jacobi torus T^{b_1(X)}, we…
We outline the current state of knowledge regarding geometric inequalities of systolic type, and prove new results, including systolic freedom in dimension 4. Namely, every compact, orientable, smooth 4-manifold X admits metrics of arbitrarily small volume such that every orientable, immersed surface of smaller than unit area is necessarily null-homologous in X.
We show that the geometry of a Riemannian manifold (M,g) is sensitive to the apparently purely homotopy-theoretic invariant of M known as the Lusternik-Schnirelmann category, denoted cat_{LS}(M). Here we introduce a Riemannian analogue of cat_{LS}(M), called the systolic category of M. It is denoted cat_{sys}(M), and defined in terms of the existence of systolic inequalities satisfied by every metric g, as initiated by C. Loewner and later developed by M. Gromov. We compare the two categories. In all our examples, the inequality cat_{sys}(M) \le cat_{LS}(M) is satisfied, which typically turns …
The systole of a compact non simply connected Riemannian manifold is the smallest length of a non-contractible closed curve ; the systolic ratio is the quotient $(\mathrm{systole})^n/\mathrm{volume}$. Its supremum on the set of all the riemannian metrics, is known to be finite for a large class of manifolds, including the $K(π,1)$. We study the optimal systolic ratio of compact, 3-dimensional non orientable Bieberbach manifolds, and prove that it cannot be realized by a flat metric.
Extremal length is a classical tool in 1-dimensional complex analysis for building conformal invariants. We propose a higher-dimensional generalization for complex manifolds and provide some ideas on how to estimate and calculate it. We also show how to formulate certain natural geometric inequalities concerning moduli spaces in terms of a complex analogue of the classical Riemannian notion of systole.
Multiplicative relations in the cohomology ring of a manifold impose constraints upon its stable systoles. Given a compact Riemannian manifold (X,g), its real homology H_*(X,R) is naturally endowed with the stable norm. Briefly, if h\in H_k(X,R) then the stable norm of h is the infimum of the Riemannian k-volumes of real cycles representing h. The stable k-systole is the minimum of the stable norm over nonzero elements in the lattice of integral classes in H_k(X,R). Relying on results from the geometry of numbers due to W. Banaszczyk, and extending work by M. Gromov and J. Hebda, we prove metr…
We characterize the Dirac structures that are parallel with respect to Gualtieri's canonical connection of a generalized Riemannian metric. On the other hand, we discuss Dirac structures that are images of generalized tangent structures. These structures turn out to be Dirac structures that, if seen as Lie algebroids, have a symplectic structure. Particularly, if compatibility with a generalized Riemannian metric is required, the symplectic structure is of the Kaehler type.
The Pontryagin forms on 1-jet bundle of Riemannian metrics, are shown to provide, in a natural way, diffeomorphism-invariant pre-symplectic structures on the space of Riemannian metrics for dimensions $n=4r-2$. The equivariant Pontryagin forms provide canonical moment maps for these structures. In dimension two, the symplectic reduction corresponding to the pre-symplectic form and its moment map attached to the first Pontryagin form, is proved to coincide with the Teichmüller space endowed with the Weil-Petersson symplectic form.
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…
Given a closed surface endowed with a volume form, we equip the space of compatible Riemannian structures with the structure of an infinite-dimensional symplectic manifold. We show that the natural action of the group of volume-preserving diffeomorphisms by push-forward has a group-valued momentum map that assigns to a Riemannian metric the canonical bundle. We then deduce that the Teichmüller space and the moduli space of Riemann surfaces can be realized as symplectic orbit reduced spaces.
$k$-symplectic manifolds are a convenient framework to study classical field theories and they are a generalization of polarized symplectic manifolds. This paper focus on the existence and the properties of left invariant $k$-symplectic structures on Lie groups having a bi-invariant pseudo-Riemannian metric. We show that compact semi-simple Lie groups and a large class of Lie groups having a bi-invariant pseudo-Riemannian metric does not carry any left invariant $k$-symplectic structure. This class contains the oscillator Lie groups which are the only solvable non abelian Lie groups having a b…
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…
We show that, for any regular Poisson manifold, there is an injective natural linear map from the first leafwise cohomology space into the first Poisson cohomology space which maps the Reeb class of the symplectic foliation to the modular class of the Poisson manifold. The Riemannian interpretation of those classes will permit us to show that a regular Poisson manifold whose symplectic foliation is of codimension one is unimodular if and only if its symplectic foliation is Riemannian foliation. It permit us also to construct examples of unimodular Poisson manifolds and other which are not unim…
We show that the existence of a nontrivial Massey product in the cohomology ring H^*(X) imposes global constraints upon the Riemannian geometry of a manifold X. Namely, we exhibit a suitable systolic inequality, associated to such a product. This generalizes an inequality proved in collaboration with Y. Rudyak, in the case when X has unit Betti numbers, and realizes the next step in M. Gromov's program for obtaining geometric inequalities associated with nontrivial Massey products. The inequality is a volume lower bound, and depends on the metric via a suitable isoperimetric quotient. The proo…
If $M$ is the underlying smooth oriented $4$-manifold of a Del Pezzo surface, we consider the set of Riemannian metrics $h$ on $M$ such that $W^+(ω, ω)> 0$, where $W^+$ is the self-dual Weyl curvature of $h$, and $ω$ is a non-trivial self-dual harmonic $2$-form on $(M,h)$. While this open region in the space of Riemannian metrics contains all the known Einstein metrics on $M$, we show that it contains no others. Consequently, it contributes exactly one connected component to the moduli space of Einstein metrics on $M$.
The aim of this paper is the geometric study of the symplectic operators which are a perturbation of the identity by a Hilbert-Schmidt operator. This subgroup of the symplectic group was introduced in Pierre de la Harpe's classical book of Banach-Lie groups. Throughout this paper we will endow the tangent spaces with different Riemannian metrics. We will use the minimal curves of the unitary group and the positive invertible operators to compare the length of the geodesic curves in each case. Moreover we will study the completeness of the symplectic group with the geodesic distance.
A long-standing open problem in systolic geometry asks whether a Riemannian metric on the real projective space whose volume equals that of the canonical metric, but is not isometric to it, must necessarily carry a periodic geodesic of length smaller than π. A contact-geometric reformulation of systolic geometry and the use of canonical perturbation theory allow us to solve a parametric version of this problem. Namely, we show that if g_s is a smooth volume-preserving deformation of the canonical metric and at s=0 the deformation is not tangent to all orders to trivial deformations (i.e., to d…
Is is known that the loop space associated to a Riemannian manifold admits a quasi-symplectic structure. This article shows that this structure is not likely to recover the underlying Riemannian metric by proving a result that is a strong indication of the "almost" independence of the quasi-symplectic structure with respect to the metric. Finally conditions to have contact structures on these spaces are studied.
The spaces of Riemannian metrics on a closed manifold $M$ are studied. On the space ${\mathcal M}$ of all Riemannian metrics on $M$ the various weak Riemannian structures are defined and the corresponding connections are studied. The space ${\mathcal AM}$ of associated metrics on a symplectic manifold $M,ω$ is considered in more detail. A natural parametrization of the space ${\mathcal AM}$ is defined. It is shown, that ${\mathcal AM}$ is a complex manifold. A curvature of the space ${\mathcal AM}$ and quotient space ${\mathcal AM}/{\mathcal D}_ω$ is found. The finite dimensionality of the spa…
A compact real analytic Riemannian manifold M admits a canonical complexification with plurisubharmonic exhaustion function satisfying the homogeneous complex Monge-Ampere equation, called a Grauert tube. From the point of view of complex analysis, several authors have considered whether a given complex manifold can arise in more than one way from this construction. We show that given a compact M and a finite exhaustion, the underlying Riemannian structure is unique. The proof uses the technique of holomorphic disks spanning two exact Lagrangian submanifolds of the cotangent bundle of M, and S…
In this paper we define a new category of almost complex riemannian 4- manifolds and discuss some basic properties of such pseudo symplectic manifolds. Some motivation based on the Seiberg - Witten theory is imposed.
Many classical facts in Riemannian geometry have their pseudo-Riemannian analogs. For instance, the spaces of space-like and time-like geodesics on a pseudo-Riemannian manifold have natural symplectic structures (just like in the Riemannian case), while the space of light-like geodesics has a natural contact structure. We discuss the geometry of these structures in detail, as well as introduce and study pseudo-Euclidean billiards. In particular, we prove pseudo-Euclidean analogs of the Jacobi-Chasles theorems and show the integrability of the billiard in the ellipsoid and the geodesic flow on …
On a compact complex manifold $(M, J)$ endowed with a holomorphic Poisson tensor $π_J$ and a deRham class $α\in H^2(M, \mathbb R)$, we study the space of generalized Kähler (GK) structures defined by a symplectic form $F\in α$ and whose holomorphic Poisson tensor is $π_J$. We define a notion of generalized Kähler class of such structures, and use the moment map framework of Boulanger and Goto to extend the Calabi program to GK geometry. We obtain generalizations of the Futaki--Mabuchi extremal vector field and Calabi--Lichnerowicz--Matsushima result for the Lie algebra of the group of automorp…
The real symplectic Stiefel manifold is the manifold of symplectic bases of symplectic subspaces of a fixed dimension. It features in a large variety of applications in physics and engineering. In this work, we study this manifold with the goal of providing theory and matrix-based numerical tools fit for basic data processing. Geodesics are fundamental for data processing. However, these are so far unknown. Pursuing a Lie group approach, we close this gap and derive efficiently computable formulas for the geodesics both with respect to a natural pseudo-Riemannian metric and a novel Riemannian …
The main result of this article provides a characterization of reductive homogeneous spaces equipped with some geometric structure (non necessarily pseudo-Riemannian) in terms of the existence of certain connection. The result generalizes the well-known result of Ambrose and Singer for Riemannian homogeneous spaces, as well as its extensions for other geometries found in the literature. The manifold must be connected and simply connected, the connection has to be complete and has to satisfy a set of geometric partial differential equations. If the connection is not complete or the manifold is …
We give a construction to obtain canonically an ``isotropic average'' of given $C^1$-close isotropic submanifolds of a symplectic manifold. To do so we use an improvement of Weinstein's submanifold averaging theorem (obtained in collaboration with H. Karcher) and apply ``Moser's trick''. We also present an application to Hamiltonian group actions.
We prove an estimate on the difference of Maslov indices relative to the choice of two distinct reference Lagrangians of a continuous path in the Lagrangian Grassmannian of a symplectic space. We discuss some applications to the study of conjugate and focal points along a geodesic in a semi-Riemannian manifold.
There are two themes in the present paper. The first one is spelled out in the title, and is inspired by an attempt to find an analogue of Hersch-Yang-Yau estimate for $lambda_1$ of surfaces in symplectic category. In particular we prove that every split symplectic manifold $T^4 times M$ admits a compatible Riemannian metric whose first eigenvalue is arbitrary large. On the other hand for Kahler metrics compatible with a given integral symplectic form an upper bound for $lambda_1$ does exist. The second theme is the study of Hamiltonian symplectic fibrations over the 2-sphere. We construct a n…
We introduce the symplectic twistor operator $T_s$ in symplectic spin geometry, as a symplectic analogue of the twistor operator in Riemannian spin geometry. We focus on the real dimension 2 and compute the space of its solutions on ${\mathbb R}^2$. Our analysis is based on the techniques of metaplectic Howe duality.
We give a notion of compatibility between a Riemannian structure and a Jacobi structure. We prove that in case of fundamental examples of Jacobi structures : Poisson structures, contact structures and locally conformally symplectic structures, we get respectively Riemann-Poisson structures in the sense of M. Boucetta, 1/2-Kenmotsu structures and locally conformally Kahler structures.
Using symplectic techniques and spectral analysis of smooth paths of self-adjoint operators, we characterize the set of conjugate instants along a geodesic in an infinite dimensional Riemannian Hilbert manifold.
We show that the Kuratowski imbedding of a Riemannian manifold in L^\infty, exploited in Gromov's proof of the systolic inequality for essential manifolds, admits an approximation by a (1+C)-bi-Lipschitz (onto its image), finite-dimensional imbedding for every C>0. Our key tool is the first variation formula thought of as a real statement in first-order logic, in the context of non-standard analysis.
The aim of our article is the study of solution space of the symplectic twistor operator $T_s$ in symplectic spin geometry on standard symplectic space $({\mathbb R}^{2n},ω)$, which is the symplectic analogue of the twistor operator in (pseudo)Riemannian spin geometry. In particular, we observe a substantial difference between the case $n=1$ of real dimension 2 and the case of ${\mathbb R}^{2n}$, $n>1$. For $n>1$, the solution space of $T_s$ is isomorphic to the Segal-Shale-Weil representation.
We introduce a new approach for computing curvature of sub-Riemannian manifolds. Curvature is here meant as symplectic invariants of Jacobi curves of geodesics, as introduced by Zelenko and Li. We describe how they can be expressed using a compatible affine connection and induced tensors, without any restriction on our sub-Riemannian manifold or the choice of connection. In particular, we obtain a universal Bonnet-Myers theorem of Riemannian type. We also give universal formulas for the canonical horizontal frame along each geodesic and an algorithm for computing the curvature in general. Seve…
Given a symplectic form and a pseudo-riemannian metric on a manifold, a non degenerate even Poisson bracket on the algebra of differential forms is defined and its properties are studied. A comparison with the Koszul-Schouten bracket is established.
We use the notion of generalized signatures at a singularity of a smooth curve of symmetric bilinear forms to determine a formula for the computation of the Maslov index in the case of a real-analytic path having possibly non transversal intersections. We discuss some applications of the theory, with special emphasis on the study of the Jacobi equation along a semi-Riemannian geodesic. The research work exposed in this paper originated from a suggestion given by the third author relating the spectral flow with the partial signatures. He pointed out several references and formulated the stateme…
In this paper, we characterize Riemannian 4-manifold in terms of its almost Hermitian twistor spaces $(Z,g_t,\mathbb{J}_{\pm})$. Some special metric conditions (including Balanced metric condition, first Gauduchon metric condition) on $(Z,g_t,\mathbb{J}_{\pm})$ are studied. For the first Chern form of a natural unitary connection on the vertical tangent bundle over the twistor space $Z$, we can recover J. Fine and D. Panov's result on the condition of the first Chern form being symplectic and P. Gauduchon's result on the condition of the first Chern form being a (1,1)-form respectively, by usi…
