This article is an overview of the results obtained in recent years on symplectic connections. We present what is known about preferred connections (critical points of a variational principle). The class of Ricci-type connections (for which the curvature is entirely determined by the Ricci tensor) is described in detail, as well as its far reaching generalization to special connections. A twistorial construction shows a relation between Ricci-type connections and complex geometry. We give a construction of Ricci-flat symplectic connections. We end up by presenting, through an explicit example, an approach to noncommutative symplectic symmetric spaces.
We determine the isomorphism classes of symmetric symplectic manifolds of dimension at least 4 which are connected, simply-connected and have a curvature tensor which has only one non-vanishing irreducible component -- the Ricci tensor.
A Yang-Mills theory in a purely symplectic framework is developed. The corresponding Euler-Lagrange equations are derived and first integrals are given. We relate the results to the work of Bourgeois and Cahen on preferred symplectic connections.
We consider invariant symplectic connections $\nabla$ on homogeneous symplectic manifolds $(M,ω)$ with curvature of Ricci type. Such connections are solutions of a variational problem studied by Bourgeois and Cahen, and provide an integrable almost complex structure on the bundle of almost complex structures compatible with the symplectic structure. If $M$ is compact with finite fundamental group then $(M,ω)$ is symplectomorphic to $¶_n(\C)$ with a multiple of its Kähler form and $\nabla$ is affinely equivalent to the Levi-Civita connection.
Given the Euclidean space $\R^{2n+2}$ endowed with a constant symplectic structure and the standard flat connection, and given a polynomial of degree 2 on that space, Baguis and Cahen have defined a reduction procedure which yields a symplectic manifold endowed with a Ricci-type connection. We observe that any symplectic manifold of dimension greater than 2 endowed with a symplectic connection of Ricci-type is locally given by a local version of such a reduction. We also consider the reverse of this reduction procedure, an induction procedure: we construct globally on a symplectic manifold end…
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…
In this paper we present a construction of Ricci-flat connections through an induction procedure. Given a symplectic manifold $(M,ω)$ of dimension $2n$, we define induction as a way to construct a symplectic manifold $(P,μ)$ of dimension $2n+2$. Given any symplectic connection $\nabla$ on $(M,ω)$, we define an induced connection $\nabla^P$ which is a Ricci-flat symplectic connection on $(P,μ)$.
Symmetric symplectic spaces of Ricci type are a class of symmetric symplectic spaces which can be entirely described by reduction of certain quadratic Hamiltonian systems in a symplectic vector space. We determine, in a large number of cases, if such a space admits a subgroup of its transvection group acting simply transitively. We observe that the simply transitive subgroups obtained are one dimensional extensions of the Heisenberg group.
A classical result of D. McDuff asserts that a simply-connected complete Kaehler manifold $(M,g,ω)$ with non positive sectional curvature admits global symplectic coordinates through a symplectomorphism $Ψ: M\rightarrow R^{2n}$ (where $n$ is the complex dimension of $M$), satisfying the following property (proved by E. Ciriza): the image $Ψ(T)$ of any complex totally geodesic submanifold $T\subset M$ through the point $p$ such that $Ψ(p)=0$, is a complex linear subspace of $C^n \simeq R^{2n}$. The aim of this paper is to exhibit, for all positive integers $n$, examples of $n$-dimensional compl…
J. Streets and G. Tian recently introduced symplectic curvature flow, a geometric flow on almost Kähler manifolds generalising Kähler-Ricci flow. The present article gives examples of explicit solutions to this flow of non-Kähler structures on several nilmanifolds and on twistor fibrations over hyperbolic space studied by J. Fine and D. Panov. The latter lead to examples of non-Kähler static solutions of symplectic curvature flow which can be seen as analogues of Kähler-Einstein manifolds in Kähler-Ricci flow.
In this article we relate the construction of Ricci type symplectic connections by reduction to the construction of star product by reduction yielding rather explicit descriptions for the star product on the reduced space.
We give an elementary construction of symplectic connections through reduction. This provides an elegant description of a class of symmetric spaces and gives examples of symplectic connections with Ricci type curvature, which are not locally symmetric; the existence of such symplectic connections was unknown.
Ricci-type symplectic manifolds have been introduced and extensively studied by M. Cahen et al.. In this note, we describe their deformation quantizations in the split solvable symmetric case. In particular, we introduce the notion of non-formal tempered deformation quantization on such a space. We show that the set of tempered deformation quantizations is in one-to-one correspondence with the space of Schwartz operator multipliers on the real line. Moreover we prove that every invariant formal star product on a split Ricci-type solvable symmetric space is an asymptotic expansion of a tempered…
This paper surveys the role of moment maps in Kähler geometry. The first section discusses the Ricci form as a moment map and then moves on to moment map interpretations of the Kähler--Einstein condition and the scalar curvature (Quillen--Fujiki--Donaldson). The second section examines the ramifications of these results for various Teichmüller spaces and their Weil--Petersson symplectic forms and explains how these arise naturally from the construction of symplectic quotients. The third section discusses a symplectic form introduced by Donaldson on the space of Fano complex structures.
On $4$-symmetric symplectic spaces, invariant almost complex structures -- up to sign -- arise in pairs. We exhibit some $4$-symmetric symplectic spaces, with a pair of "natural" compatible (usually not positive) invariant almost complex structures, one of them being integrable and the other one being maximally non integrable (i.e. the image of its Nijenhuis tensor at any point is the whole tangent space at that point). The integrable one defines a pseudo-Kähler Einstein metric on the manifold, and the non integrable one is Ricci Hermitian (in the sense that the almost complex structure preser…
Conditions are given under which an infinitesimal automorphism of a torsion-free connection preserving a symplectic form is necessarily a symplectic vector field. An example is given of a compact symplectic manifold admitting a flat symplectic connection and an infinitesimal automorphism that is not symplectic.
We study the irreducible decomposition under Sp(2n, R) of the space of torsion tensors of almost symplectic connections. Then a description of all symplectic quadratic invariants of torsion-like tensors is given. When applied to a manifold M with an almost symplectic structure, these instruments give preliminary insight for finding a preferred linear almost symplectic connection on M . We rediscover Ph. Tondeur's Theorem on almost symplectic connections. Properties of torsion of the vectorial kind are deduced.
In this note we give conditions which ensure the reduction of a symplectic connection in the process of a Marsden-Weinstein reduction and of the reduction of a presymplectic manifold.
We show, in this note, that on any symplectic supermanifold, even or odd, there exist an infinite dimensional affine space of symmetric connections, compatible to the symplectic form.
R Kerr's Ricci-flat Lorentz 4-manifold was shown by B Carter in 1968 to support a classically completely integrable system of geodesics; here we interpret this system in terms of a locally conformally symplectic structure, which we identify (§2.2) using characteristic classes defined by Kerr-Schild Cartesian coordinates (regarded as a map to the Cayley-Penrose compactification of Minkowski space). This leads to the definition of an interesting cobordism category of contact 3-manifolds and 4-dimensional locally conformally symplectic cobordisms between them.
We study the almost Kaehler geometry of adjoint orbits of non-compact real semisimple Lie groups endowed with the Kirillov-Kostant-Souriau symplectic form and a canonically defined almost complex structure. We give explicit formulas for the Chern-Ricci form, the Hermitian scalar curvature and the Nijenhuis tensor in terms of root data. We also discuss when the Chern-Ricci form is a multiple of the symplectic form, and when compact quotients of these orbits are of Kaehler type.
Our project is to define Radon-type transforms in symplectic geometry. The chosen framework consists of symplectic symmetric spaces whose canonical connection is of Ricci-type. They can be considered as symplectic analogues of the spaces of constant holomorphic curvature in Kählerian Geometry. They are characterized amongst a class of symplectic manifolds by the existence of many totally geodesic symplectic submanifolds. We present a particular class of Radon type tranforms, associating to a smooth compactly supported function on a homogeneous manifold $M$, a function on a homogeneous space $N…
The space of symplectic connections on a symplectic manifold is a symplectic affine space. M. Cahen and S. Gutt showed that the action of the group of Hamiltonian diffeomorphisms on this space is Hamiltonian and calculated the moment map. This is analogous to, but distinct from, the action of Hamiltonian diffeomorphisms on the space of compatible almost complex structures that motivates study of extremal Kähler metrics. In particular, moment constant connections are critical, where a symplectic connection is \textit{critical} if it is critical, with respect to arbitrary variations, for the $L^…
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 deform the moment map picture on the space of symplectic connections on a symplectic manifold. To do that, we study a vector bundle of Fedosov star product algebras on the space of symplectic connections. We describe a natural formal connection on this bundle adapted to the star product algebras on the fibers. We study its curvature and show the star product trace of the curvature is a formal symplectic form on the space of symplectic connections. The action of Hamiltonian diffeomorphisms on symplectic connections preserves the formal symplectic structure and we show the star product trace …
We study symplectic manifolds $(M^{2l},ω)$ equipped with a symplectic torsion-free affine (also called Fedosov) connection $\nabla$ and admitting a metaplectic structure. Let $\mathcal{S}$ be the so called symplectic spinor bundle and let $R^S$ be the curvature tensor field of the symplectic spinor covariant derivative $\nabla^S$ associated to the Fedosov connection $\nabla.$ It is known that the space of symplectic spinor valued exterior differential 2-forms, $Γ(M,\bigwedge^2T^*M\otimes {\mathcal{S}}),$ decomposes into three invariant spaces with respect to the structure group, which is the m…
We introduce a class of first order G-structures, each of which has an underlying almost conformally symplectic structure. There is one such structure for each real simple Lie algebra which is not of type $C_n$ and admits a contact grading. We show that a structure of each of these types on a smooth manifold $M$ determines a canonical compatible linear connection on the tangent bundle $TM$. This connection is characterized by a normalization condition on its torsion. The algebraic background for this result is proved using Kostant's theorem on Lie algebra cohomology. For each type, we give an …
We give a new characterization of flat affine manifolds in terms of an action of the Lie algebra of classical infinitesimal affine transformations on the bundle of linear frames. We characterize flat affine symplectic Lie groups using symplectic étale affine representations and as a consequence of this, we show that a flat affine symplectic Lie group with bi-invariant symplectic connection contains a nontrivial one parameter subgroup formed by central translations. We give two methods for constructing flat affine symplectic Lie groups, thus obtaining all those having bi-invariant symplectic co…
This is the last part of a series of articles on a family of geometric structures (PACS-structures) which all have an underlying almost conformally symplectic structure. While the first part of the series was devoted to the general study of these structures, the second part focused on the case that the underlying structure is conformally symplectic (PCS-structures). In that case, we obtained a close relation to parabolic contact structures via a concept of parabolic contactification. It was also shown that special symplectic connections (and thus all connections of exotic symplectic holonomy) …
A (biased and incomplete) review of the status of the theory of symplectic connections on supermanifolds is presented. Also, some comments regarding Fedosov's technique of quantization are made.
There is constructed a family of Lie algebras that act in a Hamiltonian way on the symplectic affine space of linear symplectic connections on a symplectic manifold. The associated equivariant moment map is a formal sum of the Cahen-Gutt moment map, the Ricci tensor, and a translational term. The critical points of a functional constructed from it interpolate between the equations for preferred symplectic connections and the equations for critical symplectic connections. The commutative algebra of formal sums of symmetric tensors on a symplectic manifold carries a pair of compatible Poisson st…
Let L->M be a Hermitian line bundle over a compact manifold. Write S for the space of all unitary connections in L whose curvatures define symplectic forms on M and G for the group of unitary bundle isometries of L, which acts on S by pull-back. The main observation of this note is that S carries a G-invariant symplectic structure, there is a moment map for the G-action and that this embeds the components of S as G_0-coadjoint orbits (where G_0 is the component of the identity). Restricting to the subgroup of G which covers the identity on M, we see that prescribing the volume form of a symple…
In this paper the dynamical stability of the Type IIA flow with no source near its stationary points is established. These stationary points had been shown previously by the authors to be Ricci-flat Kähler metrics on Calabi-Yau 3-folds. The dynamical stability of the Type IIA flow is then applied to prove the stability under symplectic deformations of the Kähler property for Calabi-Yau 3-folds.
For a Fedosov manifold (symplectic manifold equipped with a symplectic torsion-free affine connection $\nabla$) admitting a metaplectic structure, we shall investigate two sequences of first order differential operators acting on sections of certain bundles over this manifold. The operators are symplectic analogues of the twistor operators known from Riemannian spin geometry. Therefore we call the mentioned sequences symplectic twistor sequences. These sequences are complexes if the connection $\nabla$ is of Ricci type. We shall prove that the so called truncated parts of these complexes are e…
A canonical connection is attached to any k-symplectic manifold. We study the properties of this connection and its geometric applications to k-symplectic manifolds. In particular we prove that, under some natural assumption, any ksymplectic manifold admits an Ehresmann connection, discussing some corollaries of this result, and we find vanishing theorems for characteristic classes on a k-symplectic manifold.
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…
Let X be a four-manifold with boundary three manifold M. We shall describe (i) a pre-symplectic structure on the space of connections of the trivial SU(n)-bundle over X that comes from the canonical symplectic structure on the cotangent bundle of the connection space, and (ii) a pre-symplectic structure on the space of flat connections of the trivial SU(n)-bundle over M that have null charge. These two structures are related by the boundary restriction map. We discuss also the Hamiltonian feature of the space of connections with the action of the group of gauge transformations.
We construct shift operators on equivariant symplectic cohomology which generalise the shift operators on equivariant quantum cohomology in algebraic geometry. That is, given a Hamiltonian action of the torus $T$, we assign to a cocharacter of $T$ an endomorphism of $(S^1 \times T)$-equivariant Floer cohomology based on the equivariant Floer Seidel map. We prove the shift operator commutes with a connection. This connection is a multivariate version of Seidel's $q$-connection on $S^1$-equivariant Floer cohomology and generalises the Dubrovin connection on equivariant quantum cohomology. We pro…
Bi-Hamiltonian structures involving Hamiltonian operators of degree 2 are studied. Firstly, pairs of degree 2 operators are considered in terms of an algebra structure on the space of 1-forms, related to so-called Fermionic Novikov algebras. Then, degree 2 operators are considered as deformations of hydrodynamic type Poisson brackets.
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 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.
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 …
We describe a connection between symplectic Floer homology for symplectomorphisms of surface and Nielsen fixed point theory. A new zeta functions and asymptotic invariant of symplectic origin are defined. We show that special values of symplectic zeta functions are Reidemeister torsions.
