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.
We study Hamiltonian diffeomorphisms of closed symplectic manifolds with non-contractible periodic orbits. In a variety of settings, we show that the presence of one non-contractible periodic orbit of a Hamiltonian diffeomorphism of a closed toroidally monotone or toroidally negative monotone symplectic manifold implies the existence of infinitely many non-contractible periodic orbits in a specific collection of free homotopy classes. The main new ingredient in the proofs of these results is a filtration of Floer homology by the so-called augmented action. This action is independent of capping…
We prove the existence of infinitely many periodic points of symplectomorphisms isotopic to the identity if they admit at least one (non-contractible) hyperbolic periodic orbit and satisfy some condition on its flux. The obtained periodic points correspond to periodic orbits whose free homotopy classes are formed by iterations of the hyperbolic periodic orbit. Our result is proved for a certain class of closed symplectic manifolds and the main tool we use is a variation of Floer theory for non-contractible periodic orbits and symplectomorphisms, the Floer-Novikov theory. For a certain class of…
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.
We prove that any Hamiltonian diffeomorphism of a closed symplectic manifold equipped with an atoroidal symplectic form has simple non-contractible periodic orbits of arbitrarily large period, provided that the diffeomorphism has a non-degenerate (or even isolated and homologically non-trivial) periodic orbit with non-zero homology class and the set of one-periodic orbits in that class is finite.
For a closed symplectic manifold $(M,ω)$, a compatible almost complex structure $J$, a 1-periodic time dependent symplectic vector field $Z$ and a homotopy class of closed curves $γ$ we define a Floer complex based on 1-periodic trajectories of $Z$ in the homotopy class $γ$. We suppose that the closed 1-form $i_{Z_t}ω$ represents a cohomology class $β(Z):=β$, independent of $t$. We show how to associate to $(M,ω,γ,β)$ and to two pairs $(Z_i,J_i)$, $i=1,2$ with $β(Z_i)=β$ an invariant, the relative symplectic torsion, which is an element in the Whitehead group $Wh(Λ_0)$, of a Novikov ring $Λ_0$…
We show that a small neighborhood of a closed symplectic submanifold in a geometrically bounded aspherical symplectic manifold has non-vanishing symplectic homology. As a consequence, we establish the existence of contractible closed characteristics on any thickening of the boundary of the neighborhood. When applied to twisted geodesic flows on compact symplectically aspherical manifolds, this implies the existence of contractible periodic orbits for a dense set of low energy values.
Entov and Polterovich defined heaviness for closed subsets of a symplectic manifold by using the Hamiltonian Floer theory on contractible trajectories. Heavy subsets are known to be non-displaceable. In the present paper, we define a relative symplectic capacity $C(M,X,R;e)$ for a symplectic manifold $(M,ω)$ and its subset $X$ which measures the existence of non-contractible trajectories of Hamiltonian isotopies on the product with annulus. We prove that $C(M,X,R;e)$ is finite if $(M,ω)$ is monotone and $X$ is a heavy subset. We also prove that $C(M,X,R;e)$ is infinite if $X$ is a displaceable…
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.
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.
We show that the presence of one non-degenerate, non-contractible periodic orbit of a Hamiltonian on the standard symplectic torus implies the existence of infinitely many simple non-contractible periodic orbits.
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…
The first author introduced a relative symplectic capacity $C$ for a symplectic manifold $(N,ω_N)$ and its subset $X$ which measures the existence of non-contractible periodic trajectories of Hamiltonian isotopies on the product of $N$ with the annulus $A_R=(R,R)\times\mathbb{R}/\mathbb{Z}$. In the present paper, we give an exact computation of the capacity $C$ of the $2n$-torus $\mathbb{T}^{2n}$ relative to a Lagrangian submanifold $\mathbb{T}^n$ which implies the existence of non-contractible Hamiltonian periodic trajectories on $A_R\times\mathbb{T}^{2n}$. Moreover, we give a lower bound on …
We consider two disjoint and homotopic non-contractible embedded loops on a Riemann surface and prove the existence of a non-contractible orbit for a Hamiltonian function on the surface whenever it is sufficiently large on one of the loops and sufficiently small on the other one. This gives the first example of an estimate from above for a generalized form of the Biran-Polterovich-Salamon capacity for a closed symplectic manifold.
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.
In this paper we establish the existence of periodic orbits belonging to any $σ$-atoroidal free homotopy class for Hamiltonian systems in the twisted disc bundle, provided that the compactly supported time-dependent Hamiltonian function is sufficiently large over the zero section and the magnitude of the weakly exact $2$-form $σ$ admitting a primitive with at most linear growth on the universal cover is sufficiently small. The proof relies on showing the invariance of Floer homology under symplectic deformations and on the computation of Floer homology for the cotangent bundle endowed with its…
We give a complete characterization of Hamiltonian actions of compact Lie groups on exact symplectic manifolds with proper momentum maps. We deduce that every Hamiltonian action of a compact Lie group on a contractible symplectic manifold with a proper momentum map is globally linearizable.
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.
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.
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.
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 $S^1$ 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 $M$ 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 $(P^1)^n$.
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 $(X,σ,J)$ 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…
For many classes of symplectic manifolds, the Hamiltonian flow of a function with sufficiently large variation must have a fast periodic orbit. This principle is the base of the notion of Hofer-Zehnder capacity and some other symplectic invariants and leads to numerous results concerning existence of periodic orbits of Hamiltonian flows. Along these lines, we show that given a negatively curved manifold M, a neigbhourhood U of M in the cotangent bundle, a sufficiently small magnetic field and a non-trivial free homotopy class of loops, then the magnetic flow of a Hamiltonian with big enough va…
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.
We show that if K: P \to R is an autonomous Hamiltonian on a symplectic manifold (P,Ω) which attains 0 as a Morse-Bott nondegenerate minimum along a symplectic submanifold M, and if c_1(TP)|_M vanishes in real cohomology, then the Hamiltonian flow of K has contractible periodic orbits with bounded period on all sufficiently small energy levels. As a special case, if the geodesic flow on the cotangent bundle of M is twisted by a symplectic magnetic field form, then the resulting flow has contractible periodic orbits on all low energy levels. These results were proven by Ginzburg and Gürel when …
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.
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.
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…
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…
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.
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 $(M,ω)$ 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.
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 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 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 $(M, ω)$ 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.
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.
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 show that the Seiberg--Witten invariant is zero for all smooth 4--manifolds with $b_+{>}1$ which admit circle actions that have at least one fixed point. Furthermore, we show that all symplectic 4--manifolds which admit circle actions with fixed points are rational or ruled, and thus admit a symplectic circle action.
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…
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…
We define symplectic fractional twists, which generalize Dehn twists, and use these in open books to investigate contact structures. The resulting contact structures are invariant under a circle action, and share several similarities with the invariant contact structures that were studied by Lutz and Giroux. We show that left-handed fractional twists often give rise to non-fillable contact manifolds. These manifolds are in fact "algebraically overtwisted", yet they do not seem to contain bLobs, nor are they directly related to negative stabilizations. We also show that the Weinstein conjecture…
In a previous paper, the author introduced a Floer-theoretic torsion invariant I_F, which roughly takes the form of a product of a power series counting perturbed pseudo-holomorphic tori, and the Reidemeister torsion of the symplectic Floer complex. We pointed out the formal resemblance of I_F with a generating function of genus 1 Gromov invariant; furthermore, for heuristic reasons one also expects a relation with the 1-loop generating function in the A-model side of mirror symmetry, which counts genus 1 holomorphic curves. The present article makes this expected relation precise in the simpl…
An interesting question in symplectic topology, which was posed by C. H. Taubes, concerns the topology of closed (i.e. compact and without boundary) connected oriented three dimensional manifolds whose product with a circle admits a symplectic structure. The only known examples of such manifolds are those which fiber over a circle. Taubes asked whether these examples are the only examples of such manifolds. An affirmative answer to Taubes' question would have the following consequence: any such manifold either is diffeomorphic to the product of a two-sphere with a circle or is irreducible and …
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.
In this paper we study the topology of the space $\I_ω$ of complex structures compatible with a fixed symplectic form $ω$, using the framework of Donaldson. By comparing our analysis of the space $\I_ω$ with results of McDuff on the space $\cat J_ω$ of compatible almost complex structures on rational ruled surfaces, we find that $\I_ω$ is contractible in this case. We then apply this result to study the topology of the symplectomorphism group of a rational ruled surface, extending results of Abreu and McDuff.
