In this paper, we study the symplectic volume of the moduli space of polygons by using Witten's formula. We propose to use this volume as a measure for the flexibility of a polygon with fixed side-lengths.
The main result of our is that among all the Spherical and Euclidean polygons with fixed perimeter the regular one is the most flexible and that among all the spherical polygons the regular one with side-length $π/2$ is the most flexible.
We study the symplectic geometry of the moduli space of closed n-gons with fixed side-lengths in hyperbolic 3-space. We prove that these moduli spaces have a symplectic structure coming from Poisson Lie theory. We construct completely integrable systems on these moduli spaces by bending n-gons along their diagonals. The results of this paper are the analogues of the results of the first two authors for n-gon linkages in Euclidean 3-space in JDG 44. We conclude by proving by a deformation argument that the moduli spaces of n-gon linkages in hyperbolic 3-space and Euclidean 3-space with the same…
For any vector $r=(r_1,..., r_n)$, let $M_r$ denote the moduli space (under rigid motions) of polygons in $\mathbb{R}^3$ with $n$-sides whose lengths are $r_1,...,r_n$. We give an explicit characterization of the oriented $S^1$-cobordism class of $M_r$ which depends uniquely on the length vector $r$.
We consider the global symplectic classification problem of plane curves. First we give the exact classification result under symplectomorphisms, for the case of generic plane curves, namely immersions with transverse self-intersections. Then the set of symplectic classes form the symplectic moduli space which we completely describe by its global topological term. For the general plane curves with singularities, the difference between symplectomorphism and diffeomorphism classifications is clearly described by local symplectic moduli spaces of singularities and a global topological term. We in…
Let (M,ω) be a symplectic manifold, and Sigma a compact Riemann surface. We define a 2-form on the space of immersed symplectic surfaces in M, and show that the form is closed and non-degenerate, up to reparametrizations. Then we give conditions on a compatible almost complex structure J on (M,ω) that ensure that the restriction of the form to the moduli space of simple immersed J-holomorphic Sigma-curves in a homology class A in H_2(M,\Z) is a symplectic form, and show applications and examples. In particular, we deduce sufficient conditions for the existence of J-holomorphic Sigma-curves in …
Branched covers of orbit cylinders are the basic examples of holomorphic curves studied in symplectic field theory. Since all curves with Fredholm index one can never be regular for any choice of cylindrical almost complex structure, we generalize the obstruction bundle technique of Taubes for determining multiple cover contributions from Gromov-Witten theory to the case of moduli spaces with boundary. Our result proves that the differential in rational symplectic field theory and contact homology is strictly decreasing with respect to the natural action filtration.
This paper constructs and studies the Gromov-Witten invariants and their properties for noncompact geometrically bounded symplectic manifolds. Two localization formulas for GW-invariants are also proposed and proved. As applications we get solutions of the generalized string equation and dilation equation and their variants. The more solutions of WDVV equation and quantum products on cohomology groups are also obtained for the symplectic manifolds with finitely dimensional cohomology groups. To realize these purposes we further develop the language introduced by Liu-Tian to describe the virtua…
In this paper, we construct the moduli space of marked oper structures on a closed, oriented smooth surface of negative Euler characteristic as a holomorphic fiber bundle over Teichmüller space. We prove that the holonomy map from the space of marked oper structures to the moduli space of reductive flat bundles is a holomorphic immersion, generalizing the known results for the moduli space of marked complex projective structures. Finally, we prove that the symplectic structure on the moduli space of marked complex projective structures extends to a pre-symplectic structure on the moduli space …
From a view point of the moment map, we shall introduce the notion of Einstein-Hermitian generalized connections over a generalized Kähler manifold of symplectic type. We show that moduli spaces of Einstein-Hermitian generalized connections arise as the Kähler quotients. The deformation complex of Einstein-Hermitian generalized connections is an elliptic complex and it turns out that the smooth part of the moduli space is a finite dimensional Kähler manifold. The canonical line bundle over a generalized Kähler manifold of symplectic type has the canonical generalized connection and its curvatu…
We study the symplectic geometry of the moduli spaces $M_r=M_r(\s^3)$ of closed n-gons with fixed side-lengths in the 3-sphere. We prove that these moduli spaces have symplectic structures obtained by reduction of the fusion product of $n$ conjugacy classes in SU(2), denoted $C_r^n$, by the diagonal conjugation action of SU(2). Here $C_r^n$ is a quasi-Hamiltonian SU(2)-space. An integrable Hamiltonian system is constructed on $M_r$ in which the Hamiltonian flows are given by bending polygons along a maximal collection of nonintersecting diagonals. Finally, we show the symplectic structure on $…
We consider analytic curves $\nabla^t$ of symplectic connections of Ricci type on the torus $T^{2n}$ with $\nabla^0$ the standard connection. We show, by a recursion argument, that if $\nabla^t$ is a formal curve of such connections then there exists a formal curve of symplectomorphisms $ψ_t$ such that $ψ_t\cdot\nabla^t$ is a formal curve of flat invariant symplectic connections and so $\nabla^t$ is flat for all $t$. Applying this result to the Taylor series of the analytic curve, it means that analytic curves of symplectic connections of Ricci type starting at $\nabla^0$ are also flat. The gr…
We prove a conjecture of Ian Agol: all isometric realizations of a polyhedral surface with boundary sweep out an isotropic subset in the Kapovich-Millson moduli space of polygons isomorphic to the boundary. For a generic polyhedral disk we show that boundaries of its isometric realizations make up a Lagrangian subset. As an application of this result, we obtain a new solution to the problem of Richard Kenyon about spanning domes of piecewise linear curves comprised of unit intervals in R^3.
In this paper, we prove that in the system of bending flows on the moduli space of polygons with fixed side lengths introduced by Kapovich and Millson, the singular fibers are isotropic homogeneous submanifolds. The proof covers the case where the system is defined by any maximal family of disjoint diagonals. We also take in account the case where the fixed side lengths are not generic. In this case, the phase space is an orbispace, and our result holds in the sense that singular fibers are isotropic orbispaces. In a last part we provide leads in favor of a similar study of the integrable syst…
The moduli space of spatial polygons is known as a symplectic manifold equipped with both Kähler and real polarizations. In this paper, associated to the Kähler and real polarizations, morphisms of operads $\mathsf{f}_{\mathsf{K}\ddot{\mathsf{a}}\mathsf{h}}$ and $\mathsf{f}_{\mathsf{re}}$ are constructed by using the quantum Hilbert spaces $\mathscr{H}_{\mathrm{K}\ddot{\mathrm{a}}\mathrm{h}}$ and $\mathscr{H}_\mathrm{re}$, respectively. Moreover, the relationship between the two morphisms of operads $\mathsf{f}_{\mathsf{K}\ddot{\mathsf{a}}\mathsf{h}}$ and $\mathsf{f}_{\mathsf{re}}$ is studied …
We study the complex symplectic structure of the quiver varieties corresponding to the moduli spaces of SU(2) instantons on both commutative and non-commutative R^4. We identify global Darboux coordinates and quadratic Hamiltonians on classical phase spaces for which these quiver varieties are natural completions. We also show that the group of non-commutative symplectomorphisms of the corresponding path algebra acts transitively on the moduli spaces of non-commutative instantons. This paper should be viewed as a step towards extending known results for Calogero-Moser spaces to the instanton m…
We give a comparative description of the Poisson structures on the moduli spaces of flat connections on real surfaces and holomorphic Poisson structures on the moduli spaces of holomorphic bundles on complex surfaces. The symplectic leaves of the latter are classified by restrictions of the bundles to certain divisors. This can be regarded as fixing a "complex analogue of the holonomy" of a connection along a "complex analogue of the boundary" in analogy with the real case.
In this paper we study the symplectic and Poisson geometry of moduli spaces of flat connections over quilted surfaces. These are surfaces where the structure group varies from region to region in the surface, and where a reduction (or relation) of structure occurs along the boundaries of the regions. Our main theoretical tool is a new form moment-map reduction in the context of Dirac geometry. This reduction framework allows us to use very general relations of structure groups, and to investigate both the symplectic and Poisson geometry of the resulting moduli spaces from a unified perspective…
Fix a compact 4-dimensional manifold with self-dual 2nd Betti number one and with a given symplectic form. This article proves the following: The Frechet space of tamed almost complex structures as defined by the given symplectic form has an open and dense subset whose complex structures are compatible with respect to a symplectic form that is cohomologous to the given one. The theorem is proved by constructing the new symplectic form by integrating over a space of currents that are defined by pseudo-holomorphic curves.
In this paper, we study the algebraic symplectic geometry of the singular moduli spaces of Higgs bundles of degree $0$ and rank $n$ on a compact Riemann surface $X$ of genus $g$. In particular, we prove that such moduli spaces are symplectic singularities, in the sense of Beauville [Bea00], and admit a projective symplectic resolution if and only if $g=1$ or $(g, n)=(2,2)$. These results are an application of a recent paper by Bellamy and Schedler [BS16] via the so-called Isosingularity Theorem.
Let $X$ be a compact connected Riemann surface and $D$ an effective divisor on $X$. Let ${\mathcal N}_H(r,d)$ denote the moduli space of $D$-twisted stable Higgs bundles (a special class of Hitchin pairs) on $X$ of rank $r$ and degree $d$. It is known that ${\mathcal N}_H(r,d)$ has a natural holomorphic Poisson structure which is in fact symplectic if and only if $D$ is the zero divisor. We prove that ${\mathcal N}_H(r,d)$ admits a natural enhancement to a holomorphic symplectic manifold which is called here ${\mathcal M}_H(r,d)$. This ${\mathcal M}_H(r,d)$ is constructed by trivializing, over…
Let $(X,ω)$ be a compact symplectic manifold with a Hamiltonian action of a compact Lie group $G$ and $μ: X\to \mathfrak g$ be its moment map. In this paper, we study the $L^2$-moduli spaces of symplectic vortices on Riemann surfaces with cylindrical ends. We studied a circle-valued action functional whose gradient flow equation corresponds to the symplectic vortex equations on a cylinder $S^1\times \mathbb R$. Assume that $0$ is a regular value of the moment map $μ$, we show that the functional is of Bott-Morse type and its critical points of the functional form twisted sectors of the symplec…
We prove that, for any n, there are simply-connected four-manifolds which admit n-tuples of symplectic forms whose first Chern classes have pairwise different divisibilities in integral cohomology. It follows that the moduli space of symplectic forms modulo diffeomorphisms on such a manifold has at least n connected components.
We characterize transversality, non-transversality properties on the moduli space of genus 0 stable maps to a semipositive symplectic manifold of dimension 4, when GW([point],...,[point]) is enumerative. In particular, we show that the intersection theoretic property depends on the existence of a critical point on a stable map.
We extend results by Mirzakhani in [Mir07] to moduli spaces of Hurwitz covers. In particular we obtain equations relating Weil-Petersson volumes of moduli spaces of Hurwitz covers, Hurwitz numbers and certain Hurwitz cycles on Deligne-Mumford space related to those Riemann surfaces admitting Hurwitz covers of a specified branching profile. We state the precise orbifold structure of the moduli space of Hurwitz covers by applying ideas and results from Robbin-Salamon in arXiv:math/0407090. Furthermore we prove compactness of the involved moduli spaces by applying SFT-compactness in the Cieliebak…
Symplectic and Poisson structures of certain moduli spaces/Huebschmann,J./ Abstract: Let $π$ be the fundamental group of a closed surface and $G$ a Lie group with a biinvariant metric, not necessarily positive definite. It is shown that a certain construction due to A. Weinstein relying on techniques from equivariant cohomology may be refined so as to yield (i) a symplectic structure on a certain smooth manifold $\Cal M(\Cal P,G)$ containing the space $\roman{Hom}(π,G)$ of homomorphisms and, furthermore, (ii) a hamiltonian $G$-action on $\Cal M(\Cal P,G)$ preserving the symplectic structure, w…
We introduce and study the derived moduli stack $\mathrm{Symp}(X,n)$ of $n$-shifted symplectic structures on a given derived stack $X$, as introduced by [PTVV] (IHES Vol. 117, 2013). In particular, under reasonable assumptions on $X$, we prove that $\mathrm{Symp}(X, n)$ carries a canonical shifted quadratic form. This generalizes a classical result of Fricke and Habermann, which was established in the $C^{\infty}$-setting, to the broader context of derived algebraic geometry, thus proving a conjecture stated by Vezzosi.
In this paper we show that the dimensionally reduced Seiberg-Witten equations lead to a Higgs field and study the resulting moduli spaces. The moduli space arising out of a subset of the equations, shown to be non-empty for a compact Riemann surface of genus g >= 1, gives rise to a family of moduli spaces carrying a hyperkahler structure. For the full set of equations the corresponding moduli space does not have the aforementioned hyperkahler structure but has a natural symplectic structure. For the case of the torus, g=1, we show that the full set of equations has a solution, different from t…
We study the intersection ring of the space $\M(α_1,...,α_m)$ of polygons in $\R^3$. We find homology cycles dual to generators of this ring and prove a recursion relation in $m$ (the number of steps) for their intersection numbers. This result is analog of the recursion relation appearing in the work of Witten and Kontsevich on moduli spaces of punctured curves and on the work of Weitsman on moduli spaces of flat connections on two-manifolds of genus $g$ with $m$ marked points. Based on this recursion formula we obtain an explicit expression for the computation of the intersection numbers of …
We construct locally defined symplectic torus actions on ribbon graph complexes. Symplectic reduction techniques allow for a recursive formula for the symplectic volumes of these spaces. Taking the Laplace transform results in the Eynard-Orantin recursion formulas for the Airy curve x = y^2 / 2.
The moduli space of solutions to the vortex equations on a Riemann surface are well known to have a symplectic (in fact Kähler) structure. We show this symplectic structure explictly and proceed to show a family of symplectic (in fact, Kähler) structures $Ω_{Ψ_0}$ on the moduli space, parametrised by $Ψ_0$, a section of a line bundle on the Riemann surface. Next we show that corresponding to these there is a family of prequantum line bundles ${\mathcal P}_{Ψ_0} $on the moduli space whose curvature is proportional to the symplectic forms $Ω_{Ψ_0}$.
We define Floer homology for a time-independent, or autonomous Hamiltonian on a symplectic manifold with contact type boundary, under the assumption that its 1-periodic orbits are transversally nondegenerate. Our construction is based on Morse-Bott techniques for Floer trajectories. Our main motivation is to understand the relationship between linearized contact homology of a fillable contact manifold and symplectic homology of its filling.
The deformation problem for pseudoholomorphic curves and related geometrical properties of the total moduli space of pseudoholomorphic curves are studied. A sufficient condition for the saddle point property of the total moduli space is established. The local symplectic isotopy problem is formulated and solved for the case of imbedded pseudoholomorphic curves. It is shown that any two symplectically imbedded surfaces Sigma_0, Sigma_1 in CP^2 of the same degree d\le 6 are symplectically isotopic.
We give a presentation of the cohomology ring of spatial polygon spaces $M(r)$ with fixed side lengths $r \in \mathbb R^n_+$. These spaces can be described as the symplectic reduction of the Grassmaniann of 2-planes in $\mathbb C^n$ by the $U(1)^n$-action by multiplication, where $U(1)^n$ is the torus of diagonal matrices in the unitary group U(n). We prove that the first Chern classes of the $n$ line bundles associated with the fibration $r$-level set $\rightarrow M(r)$ generate the cohomology ring $H^* (M(r), \mathbb C).$ By applying the Duistermaat--Heckman Theorem, we then deduce the relat…
We prove a gluing theorem for a symplectic vortex on a compact complex curve and a collection of holomorphic sphere bubbles. Using the theorem we show that the moduli space of regular stable symplectic vortices on a fixed curve with varying markings has the structure of a stratified-smooth topological orbifold. In addition, we show that the moduli space has a non-canonical $C^1$-orbifold structure.
Let $G$ be a Lie group, with an invariant non-degenerate symmetric bilinear form on its Lie algebra, let $π$ be the fundamental group of an orientable (real) surface $M$ with a finite number of punctures, and let $\bold C$ be a family of conjugacy classes in $G$, one for each puncture. A finite-dimensional construction used earlier to obtain a symplectic structure on the moduli space of flat $G$-bundles over compact $M$ is extended to the punctured case. It yields a symplectic structure on a certain smooth manifold $\Cal M_{\bold C}$ containing the space $\roman{Hom}(π,G)_{\bold C}$ of homomor…
There are two types of $J$-holomorphic spheres in a symplectic manifold invariant under an anti-symplectic involution: those that have a fixed point locus and those that do not. The former are described by moduli spaces of $J$-holomorphic disks, which are well studied in the literature. In this paper, we first study moduli spaces describing the latter and then combine the two types of moduli spaces to get a well-defined theory of counting real curves of genus 0. We use equivariant localization to show that these invariants (unlike the disk invariants) are essentially the same for the two (stan…
We study moduli spaces of flat connections on surfaces with boundary, with boundary conditions given by Lagrangian Lie subalgebras. The resulting symplectic manifolds are closely related with Poisson-Lie groups and their algebraic structure (such as symplectic groupoid structure) gets a geometrical explanation via 3-dimensional cobordisms. We give a formula for the symplectic form in terms of holonomies, based on a central extension of the gauge group by closed 2-forms. This construction is finally used for a certain extension of the Morita equivalence of quantum tori to the world of Poisson-L…
We study the symplectic geometry of the moduli spaces of polygons in the Minkowski 3-space. These spaces naturally carry completely integrable systems with periodic flows. We extend the Gelfand-Tsetlin method to pseudo-unitary groups and show that the action variables are given by the Minkowsky lengths of non-intersecting diagonals.
A closed equilateral random walk in 3-space is a selection of unit length vectors giving the steps of the walk conditioned on the assumption that the sum of the vectors is zero. The sample space of such walks with $n$ edges is the $(2n-3)$-dimensional Riemannian manifold of equilateral closed polygons in $\mathbb{R}^3$. We study closed random walks using the symplectic geometry of the $(2n-6)$-dimensional quotient of the manifold of polygons by the action of the rotation group $\operatorname {SO}(3)$. The basic objects of study are the moment maps on equilateral random polygon space given by t…
We introduce a natural symplectic structure on the moduli space of quadratic differentials with simple zeros and describe its Darboux coordinate systems in terms of so-called homological coordinates. We then show that this structure coincides with the canonical Poisson structure on the cotangent bundle of the moduli space of Riemann surfaces, and therefore the homological coordinates provide a new system of Darboux coordinates. We define a natural family of commuting "homological flows" on the moduli space of quadratic differentials and find the corresponding action-angle variables. The space …
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.
Parabolic triples of the form $(E_*,θ,σ)$ are considered, where $(E_*,θ)$ is a parabolic Higgs bundle on a given compact Riemann surface $X$ with parabolic structure on a fixed divisor $S$, and $σ$ is a nonzero section of the underlying vector bundle. Sending such a triple to the Higgs bundle $(E_*,θ)$ a map from the moduli space of stable parabolic triples to the moduli space of stable parabolic Higgs bundles is obtained. The pull back, by this map, of the symplectic form on the moduli space of stable parabolic Higgs bundles will be denoted by $\text{d}Ω'$. On the other hand, there is a map f…
Starting from a Heegaard splitting of a three-manifold, we use Lagrangian Floer homology to construct a three-manifold invariant, in the form of a relatively Z/8-graded abelian group. Our motivation is to have a well-defined symplectic side of the Atiyah-Floer Conjecture, for arbitrary three-manifolds. The symplectic manifold used in the construction is the extended moduli space of flat SU(2)-connections on the Heegaard surface. An open subset of this moduli space carries a symplectic form, and each of the two handlebodies in the decomposition gives rise to a Lagrangian inside the open set. In…
For any oriented Seifert manifold X and compact connected Lie group G with finite center, we relate the Reidemeister density of the moduli space of representations of the fundamental group of X into G to the Liouville measure of some moduli spaces of representations of surface groups into G.
For a symplectic manifold with an anti-symplectic involution having non-empty fixed locus, we construct a model of the moduli space of real sphere maps out of moduli spaces of decorated disk maps and give an explicit expression for its first Stiefel-Whitney class. As a corollary, we obtain a large number of examples, which include all odd-dimensional projective spaces and many complete intersections, for which many types of real moduli spaces are orientable. For these manifolds, we define open Gromov-Witten invariants with no restriction on the dimension of the manifolds or the type of the con…
Moduli spaces of polygons have been studied since the nineties for their topological and symplectic properties. Under generic assumptions, these are symplectic manifolds with natural global action-angle coordinates. This paper is concerned with the quantization of these manifolds and of their action coordinates. Applying the geometric quantization procedure, one is lead to consider invariant subspaces of a tensor product of irreducible representations of SU(2). These quantum spaces admit natural sets of commuting observables. We prove that these operators form a semi-classical integrable syste…
We establish a local model for the moduli space of holomorphic symplectic structures with logarithmic poles, near the locus of structures whose polar divisor is normal crossings. In contrast to the case without poles, the moduli space is singular: when the cohomology class of a symplectic structure satisfies certain linear equations with integer coefficients, its polar divisor can be partially smoothed, yielding adjacent irreducible components of the moduli space that correspond to possibly non-normal crossings structures. These components are indexed by combinatorial data we call smoothing di…
The optimal density function assigns to each symplectic toric manifold $M$ a number $0 < d \leq 1$ obtained by considering the ratio between the maximum volume of $M$ which can be filled by symplectically embedded disjoint balls and the total symplectic volume of $M$. In the toric version of this problem, $M$ is toric and the balls need to be embedded respecting the toric action on $M$. The goal of this note is first to give a brief survey of the notion of toric symplectic manifold and the recent constructions of moduli space structure on them, and recall how to define a natural density functi…
We define a new homology theory we call symbol homology by using decorated moduli spaces of Whitney polygons. By decorating different types of moduli spaces we obtain different flavors of this homology theory together with morphisms between them. Each of these flavors encodes the properties of a different type of Heegaard Floer homology. The morphisms between the symbol homologies enable us to push properties from one Floer theory to a different one. Furthermore, we obtain a new presentation of Heegaard Floer theory in which maps correspond to multiplication from the right with suitable elemen…
