On the space ${\cal L}$, of loops in the group of Hamiltonian symplectomorphisms of a symplectic quantizable manifold, we define a closed ${\bf Z}$-valued 1-form $Ω$. If $Ω$ vanishes, the prequantization map can be extended to a group representation. On ${\cal L}$ one can define an action integral as an ${\bf R}/{\bf Z}$-valued function, and the cohomology class $[Ω]$ is the obstruction to the lifting of that action integral to an ${\bf R}$-valued function. The form $Ω$ also defines a natural grading on $π_1({\cal L})$.
Let ${\cal O}$ be a quantizable coadjoint orbit of a semisimple Lie group $G$. Under certain hypotheses we prove that $#(π_1(\text{Ham}({\cal O})))\geq #(Z(G))$, where $\text{Ham}({\cal O})$ is the group of Hamiltonian symplectomorphisms of ${\cal O}$.
Starting from a given norm on the vector space of exact 1-forms of a compact symplectic manifold, we produce pseudo-distances on its symplectomorphism group by generalizing an idea due to Banyaga. We prove that in some cases (which include Banyaga's construction), their restriction to the Hamiltonian diffeomorphism group is equivalent to the distance induced by the initial norm on exact 1-forms. We also define genuine "distances to the Hamiltonian diffeomorphism group" which we use to derive several consequences, mainly in terms of flux groups.
The special structures that arise in symplectic topology (particularly Gromov--Witten invariants and quantum homology) place as yet rather poorly understood restrictions on the topological properties of symplectomorphism groups. This article surveys some recent work by Abreu, Lalonde, McDuff, Polterovich and Seidel, concentrating particularly on the homotopy properties of the action of the group of Hamiltonian symplectomorphisms on the underlying manifold M. It sketches the proof that the evaluation map π_1(Ham(M))\to π_1(M) given by {ϕ_t}\mapsto {ϕ_t(x_0)} is trivial, as well as explaining si…
Let (M,ω) be a compact symplectic manifold, and ϕbe a symplectic diffeomorphism on M, we define a Floer-type homology FH_*(ϕ) which is a gen- eralization of Floer homology for symplectic fixed points defined by Dostoglou and Salamon for monotone symplectic manifolds. These homology groups are modules over a suitable Novikov ring and depend only on ϕup to a Hamiltonian isotopy.
This paper studies the extension of the Hofer metric and general Finsler metrics on Hamiltonian symplectomorphism group $Ham(M,ω)$ to the identity component $Symp_0(M,ω)$ of symplectomorphism group. In particular, we prove that the Hofer metric on $Ham(M,ω)$ does not extend to a bi-invariant metric on $Symp_0(M,ω)$ for many symplectic manifolds. We also show that for the torus $T^{2n}$ with the standard symplectic form $ω$, no Finsler metric on $Ham(T^{2n},ω)$ that satisfies a strong form of the invariance condition can extend to a bi-invariant metric on $Symp_0(T^{2n},ω)$. Another interesting…
We introduce here a natural functional associated to any $b \in QH_* (M, ω)$: \emph{spectral length functional}, on the space of "generalized paths" in $ \text {Ham}(M, ω)$, closely related to both the Hofer length functional and spectral invariants and establish some of its properties. This functional is smooth on its domain of definition, and moreover the nature of extremals of this functional suggests that it may be variationally complete, in the sense that any suitably generic element of $ \widetilde{\text {Ham}}(M, ω)$ is connected to $id$ by a generalized path minimizing spectral length.…
We consider compact connected six dimensional symplectic manifolds with Hamiltonian SU(2) or SO(3) actions with cyclic principal stabilizers. We classify such manifolds up to equivariant symplectomorphisms.
Consider any symplectic ruled surface $(M^g_λ,ω_λ)$ given by $(Σ_g \times S^2, λσ_{Σ_g} \oplus σ_{S^2})$. We compute all natural equivariant Gromov-Witten invariants $EGW_{g,0}(M^g_λ;H_k, A-kF)$ for all hamiltonian circle actions $H_k$ on $M^g_λ$, where $A=[Σ_g \times pt]$ and $F= [pt \times S^2]$. We use these invariants to show the nontriviality of certain higher order Whitehead products that live in the homotopy groups of the symplectomorphism groups $G_λ^g$, $g \geq 0$. Our results are sharper when $g=0,1$ and enable us to answer a question posed by D.McDuff in the case $g=1$ and provide a…
We prove several generic existence results for infinitely many periodic orbits of Hamiltonian diffeomorphisms or Reeb flows. For instance, we show that a Hamiltonian diffeomorphism of a complex projective space or Grassmannian generically has infinitely many periodic orbits. We also consider symplectomorphisms of the two-torus with irrational flux. We show that such a symplectomorphism necessarily has infinitely many periodic orbits whenever it has one and all periodic points are non-degenerate.
We use the criteria of Lalonde and McDuff to show that a path that is generated by a generic autonomous Hamiltonian is length minimizing with respect to the Hofer norm among all homotopic paths provided that it induces no non-constant closed trajectories in M. This generalizes a result of Hofer for symplectomorphisms of Euclidean space. The proof for general M uses Liu-Tian's construction of S^1-invariant virtual moduli cycles. As a corollary, we find that any semifree action of S^1 on M gives rise to a nontrivial element in the fundamental group of the symplectomorphism group of M. We also es…
This paper is concerned with the rational symplectic field theory in the Floer case. For this observe that in the general geometric setup for symplectic field theory the contact manifolds can be replaced by mapping tori of symplectic manifolds with symplectomorphisms. While the cylindrical contact homology is given by the Floer homologies of powers of the symplectomorphism, the other algebraic invariants of symplectic field theory provide natural generalizations of symplectic Floer homology. For symplectically aspherical manifolds and Hamiltonian symplectomorphisms we study the moduli spaces o…
We survey the basic notions of scattering theory in Hamiltonian mechanics with a particular attention to the analogies with scattering theory in quantum mechanics. We discuss the scattering symplectomorphism, which is analogous to the scattering matrix. We prove identities which relate the Calabi invariant of the scattering symplectomorphism to the total time delay and the regularised phase space volume. These identities are analogous to the Birman-Krein formula and the Eisenbud-Wigner formula in quantum scattering theory.
These notes combine material from short lecture courses given in Paris, France, in July 2001 and in Srni, the Czech Republic, in January 2003. They discuss groups of symplectomorphisms of closed symplectic manifolds (M,\om) from various points of view. Lectures 1 and 2 provide an overview of our current knowledge of their algebraic, geometric and homotopy theoretic properties. Lecture 3 sketches the arguments used by Gromov, Abreu and Abreu-McDuff to figure out the rational homotopy type of these groups in the cases M= CP^2 and M=S^2\times S^2. We outline the needed J-holomorphic curve techniq…
Each element of the commutator subgroup of a group can be represented as a product of commutators. The minimal number of factors in such a product is called the commutator length of the element. The commutator length of a group is defined as the supremum of commutator lengths of elements of its commutator subgroup. We show that for certain closed symplectic manifolds, including complex projective spaces and Grassmannians, the universal cover of the group of Hamiltonian symplectomorphisms of the manifold has infinite commutator length. In particular, we present explicit examples of elements in …
In this paper we obtain exact normal forms with functional invariants for local diffeomorphisms, under the action of the symplectomorphism group in the source space. Using these normal forms we obtain exact classification results for the first occurring singularities of Hamiltonian systems with one-sided constraints, a problem posed by R. B. Melrose in his studies of glancing hypersurfaces.
In an earlier paper we explained how to convert the problem of symplectically embedding one 4-dimensional ellipsoid into another into the problem of embedding a certain set of disjoint balls into \CP^2 by using a new way to desingularize orbifold blow ups Z of the weighted projective space \CP^2_{1,m,n}. We now use a related method to construct symplectomorphisms of these spaces Z. This allows us to construct some well known Fano 3-folds (including the Mukai--Umemura 3-fold) in purely symplectic terms, using a classification by Tolman of a particular class of Hamiltonian S^1-manifolds. We also…
We show that, for certain families $ϕ_{\mathbf{s}}$ of diffeomorphisms of high-dimensional spheres, the commutator of the Dehn twist along the zero-section of $T^*S^n$ with the family of pullbacks $ϕ^*_{\mathbf{s}}$ gives a noncontractible family of compactly-supported symplectomorphisms. In particular, we find examples: where the Dehn twist along a parametrised Lagrangian sphere depends up to Hamiltonian isotopy on its parametrisation; where the symplectomorphism group is not simply-connected, and where the symplectomorphism group does not have the homotopy-type of a finite CW-complex. We sho…
We consider the 3-point blow-up of the manifold $ (S^2 \times S^2, σ\oplus σ)$ where $σ$ is the standard symplectic form which gives area 1 to the sphere $S^2$, and study its group of symplectomorphisms $\rm{Symp} ( S^2 \times S^2 \#\, 3\overline{\mathbb C\mathbb P}\,\!^2, ω)$. So far, the monotone case was studied by J. Evans and he proved that this group is contractible. Moreover, J. Li, T. J. Li and W. Wu showed that the group Symp$_{h}(S^2 \times S^2 \#\, 3\overline{ \mathbb C\mathbb P}\,\!^2,ω) $ of symplectomorphisms that act trivially on homology is always connected and recently they al…
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.
This is a brief review of the main results of our paper arXiv:1101.1759 that contains a complete global treatment of the compactified trigonometric Ruijsenaars-Schneider system by quasi-Hamiltonian reduction. Confirming previous conjectures of Gorsky and collaborators, we have rigorously established the interpretation of the system in terms of flat SU(n) connections on the one-holed torus and demonstrated that its self-duality symplectomorphism represents the natural action of the standard mapping class generator S on the phase space. The pertinent quasi-Hamiltonian reduced phase space turned …
In this paper, we prove homological stability of symplectomorphisms and extended hamiltonians of surfaces made discrete. We construct an isomorphism from the stable homology group of symplectomorphisms and extended Hamiltonians of surfaces to the homology of certain infinite loop spaces. We use these infinite loop spaces to study characteristic classes of surface bundles whose holonomy groups are area preserving, in particular we give a homotopy theoretic proof of the Kotschick-Morita theorem.
This survey presents some recent results by the authors and Polterovich on the topological properties of ruled symplectic manifolds. The bundle M \to P \to B that is associated with a ruled manifold has the group of Hamiltonian symplectomorphisms of M as structure group if the base is simply connected. Thus information about Hamiltonian bundles gives stability results for ruled structures as well as obstructions to their existence.
Let $π: P\to B$ be a locally trivial fiber bundle over a connected CW complex $B$ with fiber equal to the closed symplectic manifold $(M,\om)$. Then $π$ is said to be a symplectic fiber bundle if its structural group is the group of symplectomorphisms $\Symp(M,\om)$, and is called Hamiltonian if this group may be reduced to the group $\Ham(M,\om)$ of Hamiltonian symplectomorphisms. In this paper, building on prior work by Seidel and Lalonde, McDuff and Polterovich, we show that these bundles have interesting cohomological properties. In particular, for many bases $B$ (for example when $B$ is a…
We derive a new Hamiltonian formulation of Schlesinger equations in terms of the dynamical $r$-matrix structure. The corresponding symplectic form is shown to be the pullback, under the monodromy map, of a natural symplectic form on the extended monodromy manifold. We show that Fock-Goncharov coordinates are log-canonical for the symplectic form on the extended monodromy manifold. Using these coordinates we define the symplectic potential on the monodromy manifold and interpret the isomonodromic tau-function as the generating function of the monodromy map. This, in particular, solves a recent …
The Delzant theorem of symplectic topology is used to derive the completely integrable compactified Ruijsenaars-Schneider III(b) system from a quasi-Hamiltonian reduction of the internally fused double SU(n) x SU(n). In particular, the reduced spectral functions depending respectively on the first and second SU(n) factor of the double engender two toric moment maps on the III(b) phase space CP(n-1) that play the roles of action-variables and particle-positions. A suitable central extension of the SL(2,Z) mapping class group of the torus with one boundary component is shown to act on the quasi-…
Let $\text{Ham(M)}$ be the group of Hamiltonian symplectomorphisms of a quantizable, compact, symplectic manifold $(M,ω)$. We prove the existence of an action integral around loops in $\text{Ham(M)}$, and determine the value of this action integral on particular loops when the manifold is a coadjoint orbit.
Each loop $ψ$ in the group $\text{Ham}(M)$ of Hamiltonian diffeomorphisms of a symplectic manifold $M$ determines a fibration $E$ on $S^2$, whose coupling class \cite{G-L-S} is denoted by $c$. If $VTE$ is the vertical tangent bundle of $E$, we relate the characteristic number $\int_E c_1(VTE)c^n$ with the Maslov index of the linearized flow $ψ_{t*}$ and the Chern class $c_1(TM)$. We give the value of this characteristic number for loops of Hamiltonian symplectomorphisms of Hirzebruch surfaces.
In this paper we describe a method to establish when a symplectic manifold $M$ with semi-free Hamiltonian $S^{1}$-action is unique up to isomorphism (equivariant symplectomorphism). This will rely on a study of the symplectic topology of the reduced spaces. We prove that if the reduced spaces satisfy a rigidity condition, then the manifold $M$ is uniquely determined by fixed point data. In particular we can prove that there is a unique family up to isomorphism of 6-dimensional symplectic manifolds with semi-free $S^1$-action and isolated fixed points.
Making use of the extended flux homomorphism on the group of symplectomorphisms of a closed oriented surface of genus at least 2, we introduce new characteristic classes of foliated surface bundles with symplectic, equivalently area-preserving, total holonomy. These characteristic classes are stable with respect to the genus and we show that they are highly non-trivial. We also prove that the second homology of the group of Hamiltonian symplectomorphisms equipped with the discrete topology is very large.
In this paper we compute the homotopy groups of the symplectomorphism groups of the 3-, 4- and 5-point blow-ups of the projective plane (considered as monotone symplectic Del Pezzo surfaces). Along the way, we need to compute the homotopy groups of the compactly supported symplectomorphism groups of the cotangent bundle of $\mathbf{RP}^{2}$ and of $\mathbf{C}^*\times\mathbf{C}$. We also make progress in the case of the $A_n$-Milnor fibres: here we can show that the (compactly supported) Hamiltonian group is contractible and that the symplectic mapping class group embeds in the braid group on $…
We study generators of the fundamental group of the group of symplectomorphisms $\mathrm{Symp}({\mathbb C\mathbb P}^2\#\,5\overline{\mathbb C\mathbb P}\,\!^2, ω)$ for some particular symplectic forms. It was observed by J. Kȩdra that there are many symplectic 4-manifolds $(M, ω)$, where $M$ is neither rational nor ruled, that admit no circle action and $π_1 (\mathrm{Ham} (M,ω))$ is nontrivial. On the other hand, it follows from previous results that the fundamental group of the group $\mathrm{Symp}_h({\mathbb C\mathbb P}^2\#\,k\,\overline{\mathbb C\mathbb P}\,\!^2, ω)$, of symplectomorphisms t…
Let $M$ be a compact orientable surface equipped with a volume form $ω$, $P$ be either $\mathbb{R}$ or $S^1$, $f:M\to P$ be a $C^{\infty}$ Morse map, and $H$ be the Hamiltonian vector field of $f$ with respect to $ω$. Let also $\mathcal{Z}_ω(f) \subset C^{\infty}(M,\mathbb{R})$ be set of all functions taking constant values along orbits of $H$, and $\mathcal{S}_{\mathrm{id}}(f,ω)$ be the identity path component of the group of diffeomorphisms of $M$ mutually preserving $ω$ and $f$. We construct a canonical map $φ: \mathcal{Z}_ω(f) \to \mathcal{S}_{\mathrm{id}}(f,ω)$ being a homeomorphism whene…
By a theorem of Banyaga the group of diffeomorphisms of a manifold $P$ preserving a regular contact form $α$ is a central $S^1$ extension of the commutator of the group of symplectomorphisms of the base $B = P/S^1$. We show that if $T$ is a Hamiltonian maximal torus in the group of symplectomorphism of $B$, then its preimage under the extension map is a maximal torus not only in the group $\Diff(P, α)$ of diffeomorphisms of $P$ preserving $α$ but also in the much bigger group of contactomorphisms $\Diff (P, ξ)$, the group of diffeomorphism of $P$ preserving the contact distribution $ξ= \ker α$…
We present the Hamiltonian formalism for the Euler equation of symplectic fluids, introduce symplectic vorticity, and study related invariants. In particular, this allows one to extend D.Ebin's long-time existence result for geodesics on the symplectomorphism group to metrics not necessarily compatible with the symplectic structure. We also study the dynamics of symplectic point vortices, describe their symmetry groups and integrability.
We prove that the group of Hamiltonian automorphisms of a symplectic 4-manifold contains only finitely many conjugacy classes of maximal compact tori with respect to the action of the full symplectomorphism group. We also extend to rational and ruled manifolds a result of Kedra which asserts that, if $M$ is a simply connected symplectic 4-manifold with $b_{2}\geq 3$, and if $\widetilde{M}_δ$ denotes a blow-up of $M$ of small enough capacity $δ$, then the rational cohomology algebra of the Hamiltonian group of $\widetilde{M}_δ)$ is not finitely generated. Both results are based on the fact that…
We define a class of symplectic fibrations called symplectic configurations. They are natural generalization of Hamiltonian fibrations. Their geometric and topological properties are investigated. We are mainly concentrated on integral symplectic manifolds. We construct the classifyng space \B of symplectic integral configurations. The properties of the classifying map \B --> BSymp(M,w) are examined. The universal symplectic bundle over \B has a natural connection whose holonomy group is isomorphic to the enlarged Hamiltonian group recently defined by McDuff. The space \B is identified with th…
In his 1992 article on generating functions Viterbo constructed a bi-invariant metric on the group of compactly supported Hamiltonian symplectomorphisms of R^2n. Using the set-up of arXiv:0901.3112 we extend the Viterbo metric to the group of compactly supported contactomorphisms of R^2n x S^1 isotopic to the identity. We also prove that the contactomorphism group is unbounded with respect to this metric.
