Assume $(M, ω)$ is a connected, compact 6 dimensional symplectic manifold equipped with a semi-free Hamiltonian circle action, such that the fixed point set consists of isolated points or compact orientable surfaces. We restrict attention to the case $\dim$ $H^2(M)<3$. We give a complete list of the possible manifolds, determine their equivariant cohomology ring and equivariant Chern classes. Some of these manifolds are classified up to diffeomorphism. We also show the existence for a few cases.
We construct a 6-manifold M which admits a smooth circle action and a symplectic form w such that if w' is another symplectic form on M equivalent to w, then (M,w') does not admit a symplectic circle action.
We present some methods to construct smooth circle actions on symplectic manifolds with non-symplectic fixed point sets or non-symplectic cyclic isotropy point sets. All such actions are not compatible with any symplectic form.
Following the idea of Lusztig, Atiyah-Hirzebruch and Kosniowski, we note that the Dolbeault-type operators on compact, almost-complex manifolds are rigid. When the circle action has isolated fixed points, this rigidity result will produce many identities concerning the weights on the fixed points. In particular, it gives a criterion to detemine whether or not a symplectic circle action with isolated fixed points is Hamiltonian. As applications, we simplify the proofs of some known results related to symplectic circle actions, due to Godinho, Tolman-Weitsman and Pelayo-Tolman, and generalize so…
We show that recent results of Friedl-Vidussi and Chen imply that a symplectic manifold admits a fixed point free circle action if and only if it admits a symplectic circle action and we give a complete description of the symplectic cone in this case. This then completes the characterisation of symplectic 4-manifolds that admit non-trivial circle actions.
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.
Let $M$ be a symplectic manifold, equipped with a semifree symplectic circle action with a finite, nonempty fixed point set. We show that the circle action must be Hamiltonian, and $M$ must have the equivariant cohomology and Chern classes of $(P^1)^n$.
Let $(X,σ,J)$ be a compact Kähler Calabi-Yau manifold equipped with a symplectic circle action. By Frankel's theorem \cite{F}, the action on $X$ is non-Hamiltonian and $X$ does not have any fixed point. In this paper, we will show that a symplectic circle action on a compact non-Kähler symplectic Calabi-Yau manifold may have a fixed point. More precisely, we will show that the symplectic $S^1$-manifold constructed by D. McDuff \cite{McD} has the vanishing first Chern class. This manifold has the Betti numbers $b_1 = 3$, $b_2 = 8$, and $b_3 = 12$. In particular, it does not admit any Kähler str…
We give examples of symplectic actions of a cyclic group, inducing a trivial action on homology, on four-manifolds that admit Hamiltonian circle actions, and show that they do not extend to Hamiltonian circle actions. Our work applies holomorphic methods to extend combinatorial tools developed for circle actions to study cyclic actions.
A manifold obtained by k simultaneous symplectic blow-ups of CP^2 of equal sizes epsilon (where the size of CP^1 \subset CP^2 is one) admits an effective two dimensional torus action if k <= 3 and admits an effective circle action if (k-1)epsilon < 1. We show that these bounds are sharp if 1/epsilon is an integer.
Let $M^4$ be a smooth compact manifold with a free circle action generated by a vector field $X.$ Then for any invariant symplectic form $ω$ on $M$ the contracted form $ι_X ω$ is nondegenerate. Using the map $ω--> ι_X ω$ and the related map to $H^1(M / S^1, R)$ we study the topology of the space $S_{inv}$ of invariant symplectic forms. In particular we give a description of $π_0 S_{inv}(M^4)$ in terms of the unit Thurston ball.
In this paper, we complete the classification of six-dimensional closed monotone symplectic manifolds admitting semifree Hamiltonian $S^1$-actions. We also show that every such manifold is $S^1$-equivariantly symplectomorphic to some Käahler Fano manifold with a certain holomorphic Hamiltonian circle action.
We consider circle bundles over compact three-manifolds with symplectic total spaces. We show that the base of such a space must be irreducible or the product of the two-sphere with the circle. We then deduce that such a bundle admits a symplectic form if and only if it admits one that is invariant under the circle action in three special cases: namely if the base is Seifert fibered, has vanishing Thurston norm, or if the total space admits a Lefschetz fibration.
We prove that closed symplectic four-manifolds do not admit any smooth free circle actions with contractible orbits, without assuming that the actions preserve the symplectic forms. In higher dimensions such actions by symplectomorphisms do exist, and we give explicit examples based on a construction of Fernandez, Gray and Morgan. We also prove that the only compact complex surfaces admitting free circle actions with contractible orbits are primary Hopf surfaces.
The content of this unpublished paper is subsumed in successive work of the authors, in particular arXiv:1102.0820, arXiv:1102.0821 and arXiv:1205.2434.
Consider a symplectic circle action on a closed symplectic manifold with non-empty isolated fixed points. Associated to each fixed point, there are well-defined non-zero integers, called weights. We prove that the action is Hamiltonian if the sum of an odd number of weights is never equal to zero (the weights may be taken at different fixed points). Moreover, we show that if $\dim M=6$, or if $\dim M=2n \leq 10$ and each fixed point has weights $\{\pm a_1, \cdots, \pm a_n\}$ for some positive integers $a_i$, it is enough to consider the sum of three weights. As applications, we recover the res…
We prove that when $d>2$, a $d$-dimensional symplectic quotient at the zero level of a unitary circle representation $V$ such that $V^{\Sp^1}=\{0\}$ cannot be $\Z$-graded regularly symplectomorphic to the quotient of a unitary representations of a finite group.
We complete the classification of Hamiltonian torus and circle actions on symplectic four-dimensional manifolds. Following work of Delzant and Karshon, Hamiltonian circle and 2-torus actions on any fixed simply connected symplectic four-manifold were characterized by Karshon, Kessler and Pinsonnault. What remains is to study the case of Hamiltonian actions on blowups of S^2-bundles over a Riemann surface of positive genus. These do not admit 2-torus actions. In this paper, we characterize Hamiltonian circle actions on them. We then derive combinatorial results on the existence and counting of …
Let $(M,ω_M)$ be a six dimensional closed monotone symplectic manifold admitting an effective semifree Hamiltonian $S^1$-action. We show that if the minimal (or maximal) fixed component of the action is an isolated point, then $(M,ω_M)$ is $S^1$-equivariant symplectomorphic to some Kähler Fano manifold $(X,ω_X, J)$ with a certain holomorphic $\mathbb{C}^*$-action. We also give a complete list of all such Fano manifolds and describe all semifree $\mathbb{C}^*$-actions on them specifically.
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.
Let $M$ be a closed 4-manifold with a free circle action. If the orbit manifold $N^3$ satisfies an appropriate fibering condition, then we show how to represent a cone in $H^2(M;\R)$ by symplectic forms. This generalizes earlier constructions by Thurston, Bouyakoub and Fernández-Gray-Morgan. In the case that $M$ is the product 4-manifold $S^1\times N$ our construction complements the results of \cite{FV08} (arXiv:0805:1234 [math.GT]) and allows us to completely determine the symplectic cone of such 4-manifolds. The content of this paper partly overlaps with the content of the unpublished prepr…
Let $(M, ω)$ be a connected, compact 6-dimensional symplectic manifold equipped with a semi-free Hamiltonian $S^1$ action such that the fixed point set consists of isolated points or surfaces. Assume dim $H^2(M)<3$, in \cite{L}, we defined a certain invariant of such spaces which consists of fixed point data and twist type, and we divided the possible values of these invariants into six ``types''. In this paper, we construct such manifolds with these ``types''. As a consequence, we have a precise list of the values of these invariants.
The purpose of this article is to characterize symplectic and Hamiltonian circle actions on symplectic manifolds in terms of symplectic embeddings of Riemann surfaces. More precisely, we will show that (1) if $(M,ω)$ admits a Hamiltonian $S^1$-action, then there exists an $S^1$-invariant symplectic $2$-sphere $S$ in $(M,ω)$ such that $\langle c_1(M), [S] \rangle > 0$, and (2) if the action is non-Hamiltonian, then there exists an $S^1$-invariant symplectic $2$-torus $T$ in $(M,ω)$ such that $\langle c_1(M), [T] \rangle = 0$. As applications, we will give a very simple proof of the following we…
In this paper, we consider Sjamaar's holomorphic slice theorem, the birational equivalence theorem of Guillemin and Sternberg, and a number of important standard constructions that work for Hamiltonian circle actions in both the symplectic category and the Kähler category: reduction, cutting, and blow-up. In each case, we show that the theory extends to Hamiltonian circle actions on complex manifolds with tamed symplectic forms. (At least, the theory extends if the fixed points are isolated.) Our main motivation for this paper is that the first author needs the machinery that we develop here t…
In the paper we describe obstructions for the existence of symplectic and Hamiltonian symplectic circle actions on closed compact manifolds in terms of Hirzebruch genera and relations between differential and homotopic invariants of such manifolds.
Given a smooth, closed, oriented 4-manifold X and alpha in H_2(X,Z) such that alpha.alpha > 0, a closed 2-form w is constructed, Poincare dual to alpha, which is symplectic on the complement of a finite set of unknotted circles. The number of circles, counted with sign, is given by d = (c_1(s)^2 -3sigma(X) -2chi(X))/4, where s is a certain spin^C structure naturally associated to w.
Let $S^1$ act on a symplectic manifold in a Hamiltonian fashion with momentum map $Ψ$. Fix a value $a$ of $Ψ$. There is a question of whether the symplectic quotient at $a$ is diffeomorphic to the orbit space of some proper Lie group action. We prove under mild assumptions that this only occurs if the symplectic quotient is diffeomorphic to an effective orbifold. This, in turn, only occurs if $a$ is a regular value, or there is at most one positive weight or at most one negative weight.
Let $(M,ω_M)$ be a six dimensional closed monotone symplectic manifold admitting an effective semifree Hamiltonian $S^1$-action. We show that $(M,ω_M)$ is $S^1$-equivariant symplectomorphic to some Kähler Fano manifold $(X,ω_X, J)$ with a certain holomorphic $\mathbb{C}^*$-action. We also give a complete list of all such Fano manifolds and describe all semifree $\mathbb{C}^*$-actions on them specifically.
In this paper we classify symplectic Lefschetz fibrations (with empty base locus) on a four-manifold which is the product of a three-manifold with a circle. This result provides further evidence in support of the following conjecture regarding symplectic structures on such a four-manifold: if the product of a three-manifold with a circle admits a symplectic structure, then the three-manifold must fiber over a circle, and up to a self-diffeomorphism of the four-manifold, the symplectic structure is deformation equivalent to the canonical symplectic structure determined by the fibration of the t…
Let $(M,ω_M)$ be a six dimensional closed monotone symplectic manifold admitting an effective semifree Hamiltonian $S^1$-action. We show that if the maximal and the minimal fixed component are both two dimensional, then $(M,ω_M)$ is $S^1$-equivariantly symplectomorphic to some Kähler Fano manifold $(X, ω_X, J)$ equipped with a certain holomorphic Hamiltonian $S^1$-action. We also give a complete list of all such Fano manifolds together with an explicit description of the corresponding $S^1$-actions.
In this article we are concerned with how to compute the cohomology ring of a symplectic quotient by a circle action using the information we have about the cohomology of the original manifold and some data at the fixed point set of the action. Our method is based on the Tolman-Weitsman theorem which gives a characterization of the kernel of the Kirwan map. First we compute a generating set for the kernel of the Kirwan map for the case of product of compact connected manifolds such that the cohomology ring of each of them is generated by a degree two class. We assume the fixed point set is iso…
We calculate the Riemann-Roch number of some of the pentagon spaces defined in [Klyachko,Kapovich-Millson,HK1]. Using this, we show that while the regular pentagon space is diffeomorphic to a toric variety, even symplectomorphic to one under arbitrarily small perturbations of its symplectic structure, it does not admit a symplectic circle action. In particular, within the cohomology classes of symplectic structures, the subset admitting a circle action is not closed.
We compute the Hilbert series of the graded algebra of regular functions on a symplectic quotient of a unitary circle representation. Additionally, we elaborate explicit formulas for the lowest coefficients of the Laurent expansion of such a Hilbert series in terms of rational symmetric functions of the weights. Considerable efforts are devoted to including the cases where the weights are degenerate. We find that these Laurent expansions formally resemble Laurent expansions of Hilbert series of graded rings of real invariants of finite subgroups of $\U_n$. Moreover, we prove that certain Laure…
We derive a complete asymptotic expansion of generalized Witten integrals for Hamiltonian circle actions on arbitrary symplectic manifolds, characterizing the coefficients in the expansion as integrals over the symplectic strata of the corresponding Marsden-Weinstein reduced space and distributions on the Lie algebra. The obtained coefficients involve singular contributions of the lower-dimensional strata related to numerical invariants of the fixed-point set.
Making use of theory of differentiable stacks, we study symplectic vortex equations over a compact orbifold Riemann surface. We discuss the category of representable morphisms from a compact orbifold Riemann surface to a quotient stack. After that we define symplectic vortex equations over a compact orbifold Riemann surface. We also discuss the moduli space of solutions to the equations for linear actions of the circle group on the complex plane.
A generalized moment map is proposed for arbitrary symplectic actions of compact connected Lie groups on closed symplectic manifolds, in the spirit of the circle -valued maps introduced by D. McDuff in the case of non-Hamiltonian circle actions. We study equivariance properties of generalized moments, show that they allow reduction procedures, and obtain in the torus case a version of the Atiyah-Guillemin-Sternberg convexity theorem. As illustration, we reformulate a proof of M.K. Kim that "complexity one" symplectic torus actions are Hamiltonian, and give a symplectic proof of the finiteness …
Consider a Hamiltonian circle action on a closed $8$-dimensional symplectic manifold $M$ with exactly five fixed points, which is the smallest possible fixed set. In their paper, L. Godinho and S. Sabatini show that if $M$ satisfies an extra "positivity condition" then the isotropy weights at the fixed points of $M$ agree with those of some linear action on $\mathbb{CP}^4$. Therefore, the (equivariant) cohomology rings and the (equivariant) Chern classes of $M$ and $\mathbb{CP}^4$ agree; in particular, $H^*(M;\mathbb{Z}) \simeq \mathbb{Z}[y]/y^5$ and $c(TM) = (1+y)^5$. In this paper, we prove …
We consider paths of Hamiltonian diffeomorphism preserving a given compact monotone Lagrangian in a symplectic manifold that extend to an $S^1$--Hamiltonian action. We compute the leading term of the associated Lagrangian Seidel element. We show that such paths minimize the Lagrangian Hofer length. Finally we apply these computations to Lagrangian uniruledness and to give a nice presentation of the Quantum cohomology of real lagrangians in Fano symplectic toric manifolds.
In this paper we use the Lubotzky alternative for finitely generated linear groups to determine which 4-manifolds admitting a free circle action can be endowed with a symplectic structure with trivial canonical class. The content of this paper partly overlaps with the content of the unpublished preprint "Symplectic 4-manifolds with a free circle action" (arXiv:0801.1313 [math.GT]).
Let $(M,ω)$ be a ruled symplectic four-manifold. If $(M, ω)$ is rational, then every homologically trivial symplectic cyclic action on $(M,ω)$ is the restriction of a Hamiltonian circle action.
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…
The author proved that if the circle acts symplectically on a compact, connected symplectic manifold $M$ with three fixed points, then $M$ is equivariantly symplectomorphic to some standard action on $\mathbb{CP}^2$. In this paper, we extend the result to a circle action on an almost complex manifold; if the circle acts on a compact, connected almost complex manifold $M$ with exactly three fixed points, then $\dim M=4$. Moreover, we deal with the cases of one fixed point and two fixed points.
We give elementary proofs of two `folklore' assertions about near-symplectic forms on four-manifolds: that any such form can be modified, by an evolutionary process taking place within a finite set of balls, so as to have a prescribed positive number of zero-circles; and that, on a closed manifold, the number of zero-circles for which the splitting of the normal bundle is trivial has the same parity as 1+b_1+b_2^+.
We describe families of monotone symplectic manifolds constructed via the symplectic cutting procedure of Lerman from the cotangent bundle of manifolds endowed with a free circle action. We also give obstructions to the monotone Lagrangian embedding of some compact manifolds in these symplectic manifolds.
Let $(M, ω)$ be a 6-dimensional closed symplectic manifold with a symplectic $S^1$-action with $M^{S^1} \neq \emptyset$ and $\dim M^{S^1} \leq 2$. Assume that $ω$ is integral with a generalized moment map $μ$. We first prove that the action is Hamiltonian if and only if $b_2^+(M_{\red})=1$, where $M_{\red}$ is any reduced space with respect to $μ$. It means that if the action is non-Hamiltonian, then $b_2^+(M_{\red}) \geq 2$. Secondly, we focus on the case when the action is semifree and Hamiltonian. We prove that if $M^{S^1}$ consists of surfaces, then the number $k$ of fixed surfaces with po…
Let the circle act symplectically on a compact, connected symplectic manifold $M$. If there are exactly three fixed points, $M$ is equivariantly symplectomorphic to $\mathbb{CP}^2$.
Consider an effective Hamiltonian circle action on a compact symplectic $2n$-dimensional manifold $(M, ω)$. Assume that the fixed set $M^{S^1}$ is {\em minimal}, in two senses: it has exactly two components, $X$ and $Y$, and $\dim(X) + \dim(Y) = \dim(M) - 2$. We prove that the integral cohomology ring and Chern classes of $M$ are isomorphic to either those of $\CP^n$ or (if $n \neq 1$ is odd) to those of $\Gt_2(\R^{n+2})$, the Grassmannian of oriented two-planes in $\R^{n+2}$. In particular, $H^i(M;\Z) = H^i(\CP^n;\Z)$ for all $i$, and the Chern classes of $M$ are determined by the integral co…
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…
Lalonde and McDuff showed that the natural action of the rational homology of the group of Hamiltonian diffeomorphisms of a closed symplectic manifold $(M, ω)$ on the rational homology groups $H_*(M,{\mathbb Q})$ is trivial. In this note, given a symplectic action of SU(2), $ϕ:SU(2)\times M \to M$, we will construct a symplectic fiber bundle $P_ϕ\to {\mathbb CP}^2$ with fiber $(M,ω)$ and use it to construct the chains, which bound the images of the homology cycles under the trace map given by the SU(2)-action. It turns out that the natural chains bounded by the SU(2)-orbits in $M$ are puncture…
The ``symplectic cut'' construction [Lerman] produces two symplectic orbifolds $C_-$ and $C_+$ from a symplectic manifold $M$ with a Hamiltonian circle action. We compute the rational cohomology ring of $C_+$ in terms of those of $M$ and $C_-$.
The cobordism ring of symplectic manifolds defined by V.L. Ginzburg is shown to be isomorphic to the Pontrjagin ring of complex-oriented manifolds with free circle actions. This suggests an interpretation of the formal group law of complex cobordism, in terms of a composition-law on semiclassical expansions. An appendix discusses related questions about cobordism of toric varieties.
Extending our earlier results, we prove that certain tight contact structures on circle bundles over surfaces are not symplectically semi--fillable, thus confirming a conjecture of Ko Honda.
Let $(M,ω)$ be an eight-dimensional closed symplectic manifold equipped with a Hamiltonian circle action with only isolated fixed points. In this article, we will show that the Betti numbers of $M$ are unimodal, i.e. $b_0(M) \leq b_2(M) \leq b_4(M)$.
