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Greg Kuperberg
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It is a theorem of Smale that the group of orientation-preserving diffeomorphisms of $D^2$, rel boundary, is contractible. If the diffeomorphisms can move the boundary, you can establish a homotopy equivalence between that and the circle. The diffeomorphisms do not have to preserve area. Then, a theorem of Moser establishes a deformation retract from diffeomorphisms to volume-preserving diffeomorphisms. Moser's result is easier to see if you have a closed manifold, but it extends to manifolds with boundary with the doubling trick. Together, this indirectly gives you a curve of symplectomorphisms connecting the identity to $\psi$, since in two dimensions the symplectic structure is just a volume structure. Finally if you have a smooth curve of area-preserving diffeomorphisms of a disk, I think there is a time-dependent Hamiltonian obtained by integrating the corresponding vector field.

Greg Kuperberg
  • 56.6k
  • 10
  • 203
  • 282