Consider a Hamiltonian action of a compact Lie group H on a compact symplectic manifold (M,w) and let G be a subgroup of the diffeomorphism group Diff(M). We develop techniques to decide when the maps on rational homotopy and rational homology induced by the classifying map BH --> BG are injective. For example, we extend Reznikov's result for complex projective space CP^n to show that both in this case and the case of generalized flag manifolds the natural map H_*(BSU(n+1)) --> H_*(BG) is injective, where G denotes the group of all diffeomorphisms that act trivially on cohomology. We also show that if lambda is a Hamiltonian circle action that contracts in G = Ham(M,w) then there is an associated nonzero element in pi_3(G) that deloops to a nonzero element of H_4(BG). This result (as well as many others) extends to c-symplectic manifolds (M,a), ie, 2n-manifolds with a class a in H^2(M) such that a^n is nonzero. The proofs are based on calculations of certain characteristic classes and elementary homotopy theory.
For an aspherical symplectic manifold, closed or with convex contact boundary, and with vanishing first Chern class, a Floer chain complex is defined for Hamiltonians linear at infinity with coefficients in the group ring of the fundamental group. For two non-degenerate Hamiltonians of the same slope continuation maps are shown to be simple homotopy equivalences. As a corollary the number of contractible Hamiltonian orbits of period 1 can be bounded from below.
This paper has crucial flaws in the construction of measure in the proof of Theorem 11.1 in Part II and so withdrawn. Part I is independent of Part II whose content is salient has independent interest.
We prove that, for nice classes of infinite-dimensional smooth groups G, natural constructions in smooth topology and symplectic topology yield homotopically coherent group actions of G. This yields a bridge between infinite-dimensional smooth groups and homotopy theory. The result relies on two computations: One showing that the diffeological homotopy groups of the Milnor classifying space BG are naturally equivalent to the (continuous) homotopy groups, and a second showing that a particular strict category localizes to yield the homotopy type of BG. We then prove a result in symplectic geome…
We present a general framework for reduction of symplectic Q-manifolds via graded group actions. In this framework, the homological structure on the acting group is a multiplicative multivector field.
Let M be a closed, oriented, n-dimensional manifold. In this paper we describe a spectrum in the sense of homotopy theory, Z(T^*M), whose homology is naturally isomorphic to the Floer homology of the cotangent bundle, T^*M. This Floer homology is taken with respect to a Hamiltonian H: S^1 x T^*M --> R, which is quadratic near infinity. Z(T^*M) is constructed assuming a basic smooth gluing result of J-holomorphic cylinders. This spectrum will have a C.W decomposition with one cell for every periodic solution of the equation defined by the Hamiltonian vector field X_H. Its induced cellular chain…
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 ${\cal O}$.
We introduce new invariants of Hamiltonian fibrations with values in the suitably twisted K-theory of the base. Inspired by techniques of geometric quantization, our invariants arise from the family analytic index of a family of natural $Spin^c$-Dirac operators. As an application we give new examples of non-trivial Hamiltonian fibrations, that have not been previously detected by other methods. As one crucial ingredient we construct a potentially new homotopy equivalence map, with a certain naturality property, from $BU$ to the space of index $0$ Fredholm operators on a Hilbert space, using el…
A study on the relation between the smooth structure of a symplectic homotopy K3 surface and its symplectic symmetries is initiated. A measurement of exoticness of a symplectic homotopy K3 surface is introduced, and the influence of an effective action of a K3 group via symplectic symmetries is investigated. It is shown that an effective action by various maximal symplectic K3 groups forces the corresponding homotopy K3 surface to be minimally exotic with respect to our measure. (However, the standard K3 is the only known example of such minimally exotic homotopy K3 surfaces.) The possible str…
In this paper we provide a criterion for the quasi-autonomous Hamiltonian path (``Hofer's geodesic'') on arbitrary closed symplectic manifolds $(M,ω)$ to be length minimizing in its homotopy class in terms of the spectral invariants $ρ(G;1)$ that the author has recently constructed (math.SG/0206092). As an application, we prove that any autonomous Hamiltonian path on arbitrary closed symplectic manifolds is length minimizing in {\it its homotopy class} with fixed ends, when it has no contractible periodic orbits {\it of period one}, has a maximum and a minimum point which are generically under…
Using a basic idea of Sullivan's rational homotopy theory, one can see a Lie groupoid as the fundamental groupoid of its Lie algebroid. This paper studies analogues of Lie algebroids with non-trivial higher homotopy. Using various homotopy classes one can obtain e.g. central extensions of loop groups, or one can integrate a Lie biagebroid to a double symplectic groupoid. When combined with symplectic geometry, this idea leads to an infinite sequence of notions, starting with sympectic manifolds, Poisson manifolds and Courant algebroids. They are interrelated with higher-dimensional variational…
Associated to any manifold equipped with a closed form of degree >1 is an `L-infinity algebra of observables' which acts as a higher/homotopy analog of the Poisson algebra of functions on a symplectic manifold. In order to study Lie group actions on these manifolds, we introduce a theory of homotopy moment maps. Such a map is a L-infinity morphism from the Lie algebra of the group into the observables which lifts the infinitesimal action. We establish the relationship between homotopy moment maps and equivariant de Rham cohomology, and analyze the obstruction theory for the existence of such m…
We introduce a notion of a homotopy momentum section on a Lie algebroid over a pre-multisymplectic manifold. A homotopy momentum section is a generalization of the momentum map with a Lie group action and the momentum section on a pre-symplectic manifold, and is also regarded as a generalization of the homotopy momentum map on a multisymplectic manifold. We show that a gauged nonlinear sigma model with Wess-Zumino term with Lie algebroid gauging has the homotopy momentum section structure.
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.
The paper provides a link between ergodic theory and symplectic topology. A classical notion of ergodic theory is a skew product map associated with a loop in a group of transformations. We study skew products which come from loops in the group of Hamiltonian diffeomorphisms of a symplectic manifold. Our main question is which homotopy classes of loops can be represented by strictly ergodic skew products. We prove an existence result, and find an obstruction which arises from Hofer's geometry on the group of Hamiltonian diffeomorphisms.
Given a Lie group acting on a manifold $M$ preserving a closed $n+1$-form $ω$, the notion of homotopy moment map for this action was introduced in Callies-Fregier-Rogers-Zambon [6], in terms of $L_{\infty}$-algebra morphisms. In this note we describe homotopy moment maps as coboundaries of a certain complex. This description simplifies greatly computations, and we use it to study various properties of homotopy moment maps: their relation to equivariant cohomology, their obstruction theory, how they induce new ones on mapping spaces, and their equivalences. The results we obtain extend some of …
