Questions tagged [sg.symplectic-geometry]

Hamiltonian systems, symplectic flows, classical integrable systems

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Question about Hodge number

Hi. I am studying Hodge theory on Kahler manifolds. I have several questions. Is Hodge number a topological invariant? (I mean, is it independent of the choice of Kahler structure?) If the question ...
Yunhyung Cho's user avatar
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75 votes
10 answers
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What is a Lagrangian submanifold intuitively?

What are good ways to think about Lagrangian submanifolds? Why should one care about them? More generally: same questions about (co)isotropic ones. Answers from a classical mechanics point of view ...
Jan Weidner's user avatar
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43 votes
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Why are there so few quaternionic representations of simple groups?

Having spent many hours looking through the Atlas of Finite Simple Groups while in Grad school, I recall being rather intrigued by the fact that among the sporadic groups, only one (McLaughlin as I ...
ARupinski's user avatar
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6 votes
0 answers
454 views

An algebraic Hamiltonian vector field with a finite number of periodic orbits (2)

Is there a polynomial Hamiltonian $H:\mathbb{R}^{4}\to \mathbb{R}$ such that the number of nontrivial periodic orbits of the corresponding Hamiltonian vector field $X_{H}$ is finite but different ...
Ali Taghavi's user avatar
19 votes
3 answers
3k views

What is Kirillov's method good for?

I am planing to study Kirillov's orbit method. I have seen Kirillov's method in several branch of mathematics, for instance, functional analysis, geometry, .... Why is this theory important for ...
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15 votes
4 answers
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How transitive are the actions of symplectomorphism groups ?

This question is motivated by the classical fact from differential geometry : Let $M$ be a smooth manifold of dimension at least $2$. Then for any $n$ the diffeomorphism group $\textrm{Diff}(M)$ ...
Somnath Basu's user avatar
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11 votes
3 answers
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Intuition for Levi-Civita connection via Hamiltonian flows

A Riemannian metric on a manifold $X$ defines a function on the symplectic space $T^*X$ whose Hamiltonian flow gives geodesics. Is there a similar interpretation of the Levi-Civita connection?
Dmitry Vaintrob's user avatar
9 votes
2 answers
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Cotangent bundle lift theorem

Let $M$ be a smooth manifold and $T^\ast M$ be its cotangent bundle. Consider the tautological 1-form $\theta$ on $T^\ast M$ ($\theta=\sum y_i dx^i$ in local canonical coordinate systems). A ...
Pengfei's user avatar
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67 votes
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Why hasn't anyone proved that the two standard approaches to quantizing Chern-Simons theory are equivalent?

The two standard approaches to the quantization of Chern-Simons theory are geometric quantization of character varieties, and quantum groups plus skein theory. These two approaches were both first ...
John Pardon's user avatar
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35 votes
4 answers
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When is a symplectic manifold equivalent to a cotangent bundle?

Let $X$ be a differentiable manifold. Its cotangent bundle $T^*X$ carries a canonical 1-form $ \alpha$ whose exterior differential $\omega = d\alpha$ endows $T^*X$ with the structure of a symplectic ...
Per Vognsen's user avatar
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34 votes
6 answers
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Has anything precise been written about the Fukaya category and Lagrangian skeletons?

At some point in this past year, some Fukaya people I know got very excited about the Fukaya categories of symplectic manifolds with "Lagrangian skeletons." As I understand it, a Lagrangian ...
Ben Webster's user avatar
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33 votes
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How to see the Phase Space of a Physical System as the Cotangent Bundle

Two things today motivated this question. First, the professor said that in a lecture Thurston mentioned Any manifold can be seen as the configuration space of some physical system. Clearly we ...
B. Bischof's user avatar
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21 votes
1 answer
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Why symplectic geometry gives Poisson geometry

One way I've learned to understand Poisson geometry is to consider it as symplectic geometry with no open conditions - i.e. no condition of nondegeneracy. This idea can be applied to many other ...
user44191's user avatar
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19 votes
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How big can a wedge of $n$ 2-forms in $\mathbb{R}^{2n}$ be?

$\def\RR{\mathbb{R}}$Let $\omega$ be a $2$-form on $\RR^{2n}$, where $\RR^{2n}$ has the usual Euclidean norm. The comass of $\omega$ is defined to be $\max_{|u|, |v| \leq 1} \omega(u,v)$. Here is the ...
Mikhail Katz's user avatar
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19 votes
1 answer
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Hochschild (co)homology of Fukaya categories and (quantum) (co)homology

There is a conjecture of Kontsevich which states that Hochschild (co)homology of the Fukaya category of a compact symplectic manifold $X$ is the (co)homology of the manifold. (See page 18 of ...
Kevin H. Lin's user avatar
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18 votes
3 answers
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Applications of symplectic geometry to classical mechanics

It is claimed that classical mechanics motivates introduction of symplectic manifolds. This is due to the theorem that the Hamiltonian flow preserves the symplectic form on the phase space. I am ...
asv's user avatar
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12 votes
3 answers
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What is the obstruction to the existence of a global Kahler potential?

It is a well-know fact that if $(X,\omega)$ is Kahler then about every point $x \in X$ there exists a neighbourhood $U$ and a function $K \in C^{\infty}(U,\mathbb{R})$ such that $\omega|_U = i\partial ...
user78400's user avatar
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9 votes
2 answers
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An algebraic Hamiltonian vector field with a finite number of periodic orbits(1)

Edit: The previous version of this question contained 2 part. In this new version, I deleted the first part and move it to a new question. Is There a polynomial Hamiltonian $H(x,y,z,w)=zP(x,y)+wQ(...
Ali Taghavi's user avatar
8 votes
1 answer
2k views

Symplectic block-diagonalization of a real symmetric Hamiltonian matrix

Given a $2n\times 2n$ real, symmetric, Hamiltonian matrix $W$ (anticommutes with the symplectic metric), is there an orthogonal, symplectic matrix $R$ such that $R^\top WR$ is block-diagonal? Being ...
Alex Monras's user avatar
6 votes
1 answer
1k views

A generalization of Gradient vector fields and Curl of vector fields

Let $M$ be a smooth Riemannian manifold. The Riemannian metric enables us to equip the tangent bundle $TM$ with a symplectic structure $\omega$, which is the pullback of the standard symplectic $2$ ...
Ali Taghavi's user avatar
6 votes
2 answers
1k views

symplectic structure of tangent bundle of $\mathbb{S}^{n-1}$

It is well known that $T\mathbb{S}^{n-1}$ is diffeomorphic to $M= f^{-1}(1)$ where $f:\mathbb{C}^n\rightarrow \mathbb{C}$ is $f(z):=\sum_{i=1}^{n} z_{i}^{2}$. Two questions: 1) Is $M$ a ...
Ali Taghavi's user avatar
5 votes
1 answer
954 views

Does the preimage of the Slodowy slice in $T^*G/P$ have a name?

Let $G$ be your favorite simple complex Lie group, and $P\subset G$ your favorite parabolic subgroup. We can identify $T^*G/P$ with the space of pairs $$\{(gP,x)\in G/P\times \mathfrak g | x\perp \...
Ben Webster's user avatar
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5 votes
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Canonical bundle of the Lagrangian Grassmannian

I work through the paper On branched coverings of some homogeneous space of Kim and Manivel and I came across the definition of the canonical bundle of the Lagrangian Grassmannian $\mathbb{LG}_n$, the ...
L. Kern's user avatar
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5 votes
2 answers
924 views

Holomorphic version of Darboux's theorem

I would like to ask if there is a holomorphic version of Darboux's theorem. More concretely, given a holomorphic symplectic manifold $(X, \omega)$ is there a local holomorphic symplectomorphism from $(...
Flavius Aetius's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
200 views

Does a $G$-structure on $M$ automatically descend to a contact $G$-structure on $\mathbb{P}T^*M$?

If $M$ is a real smooth manifold of dimension $n+1$, by $D\in\mathbb{P}T^*M$ I mean a tangent hyperplane at some point of $M$. I denote by $b$ the canonical projection of the $(2n+1)$-dimensional ...
Giovanni Moreno's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
378 views

Explicit form for hermitian structure $h$ with respect to $\omega$

Let $(M,\omega)$ be a symplectic manifold. and $\pi:L\to M$ be a complex line bundle , we denote $h$ as hermitian structure,i.e. if $s,s'$ are smooth sections of $L$ and if $X$ is a vector field on $M$...
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2 votes
0 answers
524 views

Tian's approach for solving the conjecture of invariance of plurigenera in Kahler setting

Let $f:X\to Y$ be a smooth holomorphic fibre space whose fibres $f^{-1}(y)$ have pseudoeffective canonical bundles. suppose that $$\frac{\partial \omega(t)}{\partial t}=-Ric_{X/Y}(\omega(t))-\omega(...
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1 vote
1 answer
465 views

Fibration when central fibre is a Calabi-Yau variety with canonical singularities

Let $f\colon X\to Y$ be a surjective proper holomorphic fibre space such that $X$ and $Y$ are projective varieties and central fibre $X_0$ is Calabi-Yau variety with canonical singularities, then can ...
user avatar
49 votes
5 answers
4k views

are there natural examples of classical mechanics that happens on a symplectic manifold that isn't a cotangent bundle?

I'm curious about just how far the abstraction to a symplectic formalism can be justified by appeal to actual physical examples. There's good motivation, for example, for working over an arbitrary ...
symplectomorphic's user avatar
28 votes
6 answers
3k views

Why is there no symplectic version of spectral geometry?

First, recall that on a Riemannian manifold $(M,g)$ the Laplace-Beltrami operator $\Delta_g:C^\infty(M)\to C^\infty(M)$ is defined as $$ \Delta_g=\mathrm{div}_g\circ\mathrm{grad}_g, $$ where the ...
B K's user avatar
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28 votes
4 answers
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When are two symplectic forms "isotopic"?

I've been skulking around MathOverflow for about a month, reading questions and answers and comments, and I guess it's about time I asked a question myself, so here is one has interested me for a long ...
Dick Palais's user avatar
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22 votes
5 answers
2k views

When is the time evolution of a Hamiltonian system described by the geodesic flow on a Riemannian manifold?

Here is my precise question. Let $M, \omega$ be a symplectic manifold and let $H: M \to \mathbb{R}$ be any smooth function. The symplectic form gives rise to an isomorphism between the tangent ...
Paul Siegel's user avatar
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21 votes
3 answers
2k views

When is a coadjoint orbit an integrable system (in a weak sense explained below)?

Let $X$ be an affine holomorphic symplectic variety of dimension $2n$, with the associated Poisson bracket { , }. Let's say it's an integrable system when there are $n$ algebraically independent ...
Yuji Tachikawa's user avatar
20 votes
2 answers
3k views

What is the significance that the Springer resolution is a moment map?

Let $\mathcal{B}$ be the flag variety and $\mathcal{N} \subset \mathfrak{g}$ is the nilpotent cone. We know that the Springer resolution $$ \mu: T^*\mathcal{B}\rightarrow \mathcal{N} $$ is the moment ...
Zhaoting Wei's user avatar
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20 votes
1 answer
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Functoriality of the cotangent bundle

Recall that to any manifold $X$, I can assign in a canonical way a manifold $\mathrm T ^* X$, the total space of the cotangent bundle over $X$. Recall also that, unlike the tangent bundle ...
Theo Johnson-Freyd's user avatar
19 votes
2 answers
1k views

About a Delzant polytope. (In particular dodecahedron)

Hi. I have a question. Definition. Delzant polytope $P$ is a rational convex simple polytope with the smooth condition. Here, "smooth" means that for each vertex $v$, the $n$ edges containing $v$ ...
Yunhyung Cho's user avatar
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18 votes
1 answer
2k views

Projective embedding of symplectic manifolds

Let $(M^{2n},\omega)$ be a symplectic manifold with an integral symplectic form $\omega$. Due to the work of M.Gromov and D.Tischler (M.Gromov "A topological technique for the construction of ...
Yunhyung Cho's user avatar
  • 1,037
18 votes
2 answers
4k views

What is a Futaki invariant, what is the intuition behind it, and why is it important?

As the question title suggests, what is a Futaki invariant, what is the intuition behind it, and why is it important?
user312955's user avatar
17 votes
2 answers
3k views

Comparison between Hamiltonian Floer cohomology and Lagrangian Floer cohomology of the diagonal

Let X be a compact symplectic manifold with a form $\omega$. And $X \times X$ is equipped with the symplectic form $(\omega,-\omega)$. The diagonal $\Delta:X \mapsto X \times X$ is a Lagrangian ...
Daniel Pomerleano's user avatar
16 votes
1 answer
1k views

Is there an area-preserving diffeomorphism of the disk which is nowhere conformal?

This question is a cross-post. Let $D \subseteq \mathbb{R}^2$ be the closed unit disk. Does there exist a smooth area-preserving diffeomorphism $f:D \to D$ that does not have conformal points? I ...
Asaf Shachar's user avatar
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16 votes
2 answers
2k views

Why is every symplectomorphism of the unit disk Hamiltonian isotopic to the identity?

That is, for any symplectomorphism $\psi: D^2 \to D^2$, there should be a time-dependent Hamiltonian Ht on D2 such that the corresponding flow at time 1 is equal to $\psi$. I found this in claim a ...
Ilya Grigoriev's user avatar
16 votes
2 answers
2k views

The Lefschetz operator

Let $\omega=\sum_{i=1}^n dx_i\wedge dy_i\in\bigwedge^2(\mathbb{R}^{2n})^*$ be a standard symplectic form. The following result is due to Lefschetz: For $k\leq n$, the Lefschetz operator $L^{n-k}:\...
Piotr Hajlasz's user avatar
15 votes
2 answers
2k views

Deformation quantization and quantum cohomology (or Fukaya category) -- are they related?

Good afternoon. Let $M$ be, say, a compact symplectic manifold. Both deformation quantization (as in Kontsevich) and quantum cohomology yield "deformations" (in the appropriate respective senses) of "...
Kevin H. Lin's user avatar
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15 votes
1 answer
798 views

symplectic form on an algebraic family

I know that smooth Fano varieties over $\mathbb{C}$ may be classified into a finite number of families in each dimension (1 in dimension 1, 10 in dimension 2, 105 in dimension 3 ...). I am ...
Nick L's user avatar
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14 votes
5 answers
2k views

Does the Baker-Campbell-Hausdorff formula hold for vector fields on a (compact) manifold?

Consider a compact manifold M. For a vector field X on M, let $\phi_X$ denote the diffeomorphism of M given by the time 1 flow of X. If X and Y are two vector fields, is $\phi_X \circ \phi_Y$ ...
villemoes's user avatar
  • 947
14 votes
2 answers
929 views

Infinity local systems

I have seen many references in the (geometric representation theory, symplectic geometry, etc) literature to "infinity local systems". From what I've been told, given a good cover $\{U_i\}$ of $X$, ...
user142700's user avatar
13 votes
1 answer
1k views

decompositions for exceptional Lie algebras $E_6$, $E_7$ and $E_8$

Do anybody know , why can we write the following decompositions for exceptional Lie algebras $E_6$, $E_7$ and $E_8$ 1) $E_8=(V^{\star}\otimes \wedge^{8}V^{\star})\bigoplus \wedge^{6}V^{\star}\...
user avatar
12 votes
3 answers
1k views

Do contact and CR structures have corresponding $G$-structures?

For an $n$-dimensional manifold $M$, almost complex and almost symplectic structures on $M$ correspond to reductions on the structure group of the tangent bundle, introducing a $\operatorname{GL}(n/2,\...
E. Addison's user avatar
12 votes
6 answers
3k views

When do you go hunting for Lagrangian submanifolds?

Similar to this question, I'm trying to figure out why one would be interested in Lagrangian submanifolds. But from a more geometric point of view. My best find so far is Exercise 12.4 in McDuff, ...
Jan-David Salchow's user avatar
12 votes
2 answers
954 views

Special Hamiltonian diffeomorphisms

Is there any obstruction that prevents a Hamiltonian diffeomorphism on some symplectic manifold to be realized as the time-one map of the Hamiltonian flow of an autonomous Hamiltonian? In the same ...
Marco Mazzucchelli's user avatar