Odd symplectic flag manifolds

We define the odd symplectic Grassmannians and flag manifolds, which are smooth projective varieties equipped with an action of the odd symplectic group, analogous to the usual symplectic Grassmannians and flag manifolds. Contrary to the latter, which are the flag manifolds of the symplectic group, the varieties we introduce are not homogeneous. We argue nevertheless that in many respects the odd symplectic Grassmannians and flag manifolds behave like homogeneous varieties; in support of this claim, we compute the automorphism group of the odd symplectic Grassmannians and we prove a Borel-Weil-type theorem for the odd symplectic group.     

THE WEINSTEIN CONJECTURE ON C~1-SMOOTH HYPERSURFACE OF CONTACT TYPE

In this note a symplectic capacity of Hofer-Zehnder type that is only invariant under C1-symplectomorphisms is defined and all computation formulae for Hofer-Zehnder symplectic capacity obtained at present are proved still holding for it. As a consequence some results on Weinstein conjecture are generalized to C1-smooth hypersurface of contact type.     

Corrigendum to the Note “Symplectic capacities of toric manifolds and combinatorial inequalities” [C. R. Acad. Sci. Paris,Ser. I 334 (10) (2002) 889–892]

In this Note we correct some results in Lu, Symplectic capacities of toric manifolds and combinatorial inequalities [C. R. Acad. Sci. Paris, Ser. I 334 (10) (2002) 889–892] on (pseudo) symplectic capacities for toric manifolds. To cite this article: G. Lu, C. R. Acad. Sci. Paris, Ser. I 340 (2005).     

Standard Embeddings of Smooth Schubert Varieties in Rational Homogeneous Manifolds of Picard Number 1

Smooth Schubert varieties in rational homogeneous manifolds of Picard number 1 are horospherical varieties. We characterize standard embeddings of smooth Schubert varieties in rational homogeneous manifolds of Picard number 1 by means of varieties of minimal rational tangents. In particular, we mainly consider nonhomogeneous smooth Schubert varieties in symplectic Grassmannians and in the 20-dimensional F_4- homogeneous manifold associated to a short simple root.     

Weak and strong fillability of higher dimensional contact manifolds

For contact manifolds in dimension three, the notions of weak and strong symplectic fillability and tightness are all known to be inequivalent. We extend these facts to higher dimensions: in particular, we define a natural generalization of weak fillings and prove that it is indeed weaker (at least in dimension five), while also being obstructed by all known manifestations of “overtwistedness”. We also find the first examples of contact manifolds in all dimensions that are not symplectically fillable but also cannot be called overtwisted in any reasonable sense. These depend on a higher dimensional analogue of Giroux torsion, which we define via the existence in all dimensions of exact symplectic manifolds with disconnected contact boundary.     

Hamiltonian systems on complex Grassmann manifolds. Holonomy and Schrodinger equation

Differential geometric structures such as principal bundles for canonical vector bundles on complex Grassmann manifolds, canonical connection forms on these bundles, canonical symplectic forms on complex Grassmann manifolds, and the corresponding dynamical systems are investigated. Grassmann manifolds are considered as orbits of the co-adjoint action and symplectic forms are described as the restrictions of the canonical Poisson structure to Lie coalgebras. Holonomies of connections on principal bundles over Grassmannians and their relation with Berry phases is considered and investigated for integral curves of Hamiltonian dynamical systems. __________ Translated from Sovremennaya Matematika i Ee Prilozheniya (Contemporary Mathematics and Its Applications), Vol. 22, Algebra and Geometry, 2004.     

Jacobi-type identities in algebras and superalgebras

We introduce two remarkable identities written in terms of single commutators and anticommutators for any three elements of an arbitrary associative algebra. One is a consequence of the other (fundamental identity). From the fundamental identity, we derive a set of four identities (one of which is the Jacobi identity) represented in terms of double commutators and anticommutators. We establish that two of the four identities are independent and show that if the fundamental identity holds for an algebra, then the multiplication operation in that algebra is associative. We find a generalization of the obtained results to the super case and give a generalization of the fundamental identity in the case of arbitrary elements. For nondegenerate even symplectic (super)manifolds, we discuss analogues of the fundamental identity.     

Non-symplectic smooth circle actions on symplectic manifolds

We construct smooth circle actions on symplectic manifolds with non-symplectic fixed point sets or cyclic isotropy sets. All such actions are not compatible with any symplectic form on the manifold in question. In order to cover the case of non-symplectic fixed point sets, we use two smooth 4-manifolds (one symplectic and one non-symplectic) which become diffeomorphic after taking the products with the 2-sphere. The second type of actions is obtained by constructing smooth circle actions on spheres with non-symplectic cyclic isotropy sets, which (by the equivariant connected sum construction) we carry over from the spheres on products of 2-spheres. Moreover, by using the mapping torus construction, we show that periodic diffeomorphisms (isotopic to symplectomorphisms) of symplectic manifolds can provide examples of smooth fixed point free circle actions on symplectic manifolds with non-symplectic cyclic isotropy sets.     

Exotic smooth structures and symplectic forms on closed manifolds

In this paper we discuss relations between symplectic forms and smooth structures on closed manifolds. Our main motivation is the problem if there exist symplectic structures on exotic tori. This is a symplectic generalization of a problem posed by Benson and Gordon. We give a short proof of the (known) positive answer to the original question of Benson and Gordon that there are no Kähler structures on exotic tori. We survey also other related results which give an evidence for the conjecture that there are no symplectic structures on exotic tori.     

Symplectic homology and periodic orbits near symplectic submanifolds

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.     

Differential geometry of curves in Lagrange Grassmannians with given Young diagram

Curves in Lagrange Grassmannians appear naturally in the intrinsic study of geometric structures on manifolds. By a smooth geometric structure on a manifold we mean any submanifold of its tangent bundle, transversal to the fibers. One can consider the time-optimal problem naturally associated with a geometric structure. The Pontryagin extremals of this optimal problem are integral curves of certain Hamiltonian system in the cotangent bundle. The dynamics of the fibers of the cotangent bundle w.r.t. this system along an extremal is described by certain curve in a Lagrange Grassmannian, called Jacobi curve of the extremal. Any symplectic invariant of the Jacobi curves produces the invariant of the original geometric structure. The basic characteristic of a curve in a Lagrange Grassmannian is its Young diagram. The number of boxes in its kth column is equal to the rank of the kth derivative of the curve (which is an appropriately defined linear mapping) at a generic point. We will describe the construction of the complete system of symplectic invariants for parameterized curves in a Lagrange Grassmannian with given Young diagram. It allows to develop in a unified way local differential geometry of very wide classes of geometric structures on manifolds, including both classical geometric structures such as Riemannian and Finslerian structures and less classical ones such as sub-Riemannian and sub-Finslerian structures, defined on nonholonomic distributions.     

Cartan-Fubini type extension of holomorphic maps respecting varieties of minimal rational tangents

A fundamental result in the theory of minimal rational curves on projective manifolds is CartanFubini extension theorem proved by Hwang and Mok,which describes the extensibility of biholomorphisms between connected open subsets of two Fano manifolds of Picard number 1 which preserve varieties of minimal rational tangents(VMRT),under a mild geometric assumption on the second fundamental forms of VMRT’s.Hong and Mok have developed Cartan-Fubini extension for non-equidimensional holomorphic immersions from a connected open subset of a Fano manifold of Picard number 1 into a uniruled projective manifold,under the assumptions that the map sends VMRT’s onto linear sections of VMRT’s and it satisfies a mild geometric condition formulated in terms of second fundamental forms on VMRT’s.In the current paper,we give a generalization of Hong and Mok’s result,under the same condition on second fundamental forms,assuming only that the holomorphic immersions send VMRT’s to VMRT’s.Our argument is different from Hong and Mok’s and is based on the study of natural foliations on the total family of VMRT’s.This gives a substantially simpler proof than Hong and Mok’s argument.     

Grassmannians of symplectic subspaces

We study the geometry of the Grassmannians of symplectic subspaces in a symplectic vector space. We construct symplectic twistor spaces by the symplectic quotient construction and use them to describe the symplectic geometry of the symplectic Grassmannians.     

Symplectic method for the construction of ergodic measures on invariant submanifolds of nonautonomous hamiltonian systems: Lagrangian manifolds, their structure, and mather homologies

We develop a new approach to the study of properties of ergodic measures for nonautonomous periodic Hamiltonian flows on symplectic manifolds, which are used in many problems of mechanics and mathematical physics. Using Mather’s results on homologies of invariant probability measures that minimize some Lagrangian functionals and the symplectic theory developed by Floer and others for the investigation of symplectic actions and transversal intersections of Lagrangian manifolds, we propose an analog of a Mather-type β-function for the study of ergodic measures associated with nonautonomous Hamiltonian systems on weakly exact symplectic manifolds. Within the framework of the Gromov-Salamon-Zehnder elliptic methods in symplectic geometry, we establish some results on stable and unstable manifolds for hyperbolic invariant sets, which are used in the theory of adiabatic invariants of slowly perturbed integrable Hamiltonian systems. __________ Translated from Ukrains’kyi Matematychnyi Zhurnal, Vol. 58, No. 5, pp. 675–691, May, 2006.     

Hofer'sL ∞-geometry: energy and stability of Hamiltonian flows,part II

In this paper we first show that the necessary condition introduced in our previous paper is also a sufficient condition for a path to be a geodesic in the group Ham ^c (M) of compactly supported Hamiltonian symplectomorphisms. This applies with no restriction onM. We then discuss conditions which guarantee that such a path minimizes the Hofer length. Our argument relies on a general geometric construction (the gluing of monodromies) and on an extension of Gromov's non-squeezing theorem both to more general manifolds and to more general capacities. The manifolds we consider are quasi-cylinders, that is spaces homeomorphic toM×D ² which are symplectically ruled overD ². When we work with the usual capacity (derived from embedded balls), we can prove the existence of paths which minimize the length among all homotopic paths, provided thatM is semi-monotone. (This restriction occurs because of the well-known difficulty with the theory ofJ-holomorphic curves in arbitraryM.) However, we can only prove the existence of length-minimizing paths (i.e. paths which minimize length amongstall paths, not only the homotopic ones) under even more restrictive conditions onM, for example whenM is exact and convex or of dimension 2. The new difficulty is caused by the possibility that there are non-trivial and very short loops in Ham ^c (M). When such lengthminimizing paths do exist, we can extend the Bialy-Polterovich calculation of the Hofer norm on a neighbourhood of the identity (C ^l-flatness).Although it applies to a more restricted class of manifolds, the Hofer-Zehnder capacity seems to be better adapted to the problem at hand, giving sharper estimates in many situations. Also the capacity-area inequality for split cylinders extends more easily to quasi-cylinders in this case. As applications, we generalise Hofer's estimate of the time for which an autonomous flow is length-minimizing to some manifolds other thanR ²ⁿ , and derive new results such as the unboundedness of Hofer's metric on some closed manifolds, and a linear rigidity result.Oblatum 13-X-1994 & 8-V-1995Partially supported by NSERC grant OGP 0092913 and FCAR grant ER-1199Partially supported by NSF grant DMS 9103033 and NSF Visiting Professorship for Women GER 9350075     

Symplectic capacity and the Weinstein conjecture in certain cotangent bundles and Stein manifolds

We use the method proposed by H. Hofer. and C. Viterbo in [18] to calculate the Hofer-Zehnder capacity and prove the Weinstein conjecture in certain cotangent bundles and Stein manifolds.Supported in parts by SFB237 and the Forschunginstitut für Mathematik, ETH-Zentrum, Switzerland.     

Generalized symplectic symmetric spaces

Bieliavsky introduced and investigated a class of symplectic symmetric spaces, that is, symmetric spaces endowed with a symplectic structure invariant with respect to symmetries. The theory of symmetric spaces has essential and interesting generalizations due to the fundamental work of Gray and Wolf continued by many researchers. Therefore, we ask a question about possible symplectic versions of such theory. In this paper we do obtain such generalization, and, in particular, give a list of all symplectic 3-symmetric manifolds with simple groups of transvections. We also show a method of constructing semisimple (noncompact) symplectic \(k\) -symmetric spaces from a given (compact) Kähler k-symmetric space.     

The Künneth formula in Floer homology for manifolds with restricted contact type boundary

We prove the Künneth formula in Floer (co)homology for manifolds with restricted contact type boundary. We use Viterbo's definition of Floer homology, involving the symplectic completion by adding a positive cone over the boundary. The Künneth formula implies the vanishing of Floer (co)homology for subcritical Stein manifolds. Other applications include the Weinstein conjecture in certain product manifolds, obstructions to exact Lagrangian embeddings, existence of holomorphic curves with Lagrangian boundary condition, as well as symplectic capacities. Supported by ENS Lyon, école Polytechnique (Palaiseau) and ETH (Zürich).     

The geometry of a bi-Lagrangian manifold

This is a survey on bi-Lagrangian manifolds, which are symplectic manifolds endowed with two transversal Lagrangian foliations. We also study the non-integrable case (i.e., a symplectic manifold endowed with two transversal Lagrangian distributions). We show that many different geometric structures can be attached to these manifolds and we carefully analyze the associated connections. Moreover, we introduce the problem of the intersection of the two leaves, one of each foliation, through a point and show a lot of significative examples.     

Dirac submanifolds and Poisson involutions

Dirac submanifolds are a natural generalization in the Poisson category of the symplectic submanifolds of a symplectic manifold. They correspond to symplectic subgroupoids of the symplectic groupoid of the given Poisson manifold. In particular, Dirac submanifolds arise as the stable loci of Poisson involutions. In this paper, we make a general study of these submanifolds including both local and global aspects.In the second part of the paper, we study Poisson involutions and the induced Poisson structures on their stable loci. In particular, we discuss the Poisson involutions on a special class of Poisson groups, and more generally Poisson groupoids, called symmetric Poisson groups, and symmetric Poisson groupoids. Many well-known examples, including the standard Poisson group structures on semi-simple Lie groups, Bruhat Poisson structures on compact semi-simple Lie groups, and Poisson groupoid structures arising from dynamical r-matrices of semi-simple Lie algebras are symmetric, so they admit a Poisson involution. For symmetric Poisson groups, the relation between the stable locus Poisson structure and Poisson symmetric spaces is discussed. As a consequence, we prove that the Dubrovin Poisson structure on the space of Stokes matrices U₊ (appearing in Dubrovin's theory of Frobenius manifolds) is a Poisson symmetric space.