Nonlinear flag manifolds as coadjoint orbits (Q2212341)

In [Math. Ann. 329, No. 4, 771--785 (2004; Zbl 1071.58005)], the present authors introduced the notion of a nonlinear Grassmannian and studied the Fréchet manifold \(\mathrm{Gras}_n(M)\) of all \(n\)-dimensional oriented compact submanifolds of a smooth closed connected \(m\)-dimensional manifold \(M\). They showed that every closed \((n+2)\)-form \(\alpha\) on \(M\) defines a closed 2-form \(\widetilde{\alpha}\) on \(\mathrm{Gras}_n(M)\), and if \(\alpha\) is integrable, then \(\widetilde{\alpha}\) is the curvature form of a principal connection on a principal \(S^1\)-bundle over \(\mathrm{Gras}_n(M)\). In the case \(\alpha\) is a closed, integrable volume form, then every connected component \(\mathcal{M}\) of \(\mathrm{Gras}_{m-2}(M)\), equipped with the symplectic form \(\widetilde{\alpha}\), is a prequantizable coadjoint orbit of some central extension of the Hamiltonian group \(\text{Ham}(M,\alpha)\) by \(S^1\). In this paper, the authors generalize the notion of a nonlinear Grassmannian to the notion of a nonlinear flag manifold. If \(M\) is a smooth manifold, \(S_1,\dots,S_r\) are closed smooth manifolds, then a sequence of nested embedded submanifolds \(N_1\subseteq\dots\subseteq N_r\subseteq M\) such that \(N_i\) is diffeomorphic to \(S_i\) for all \(i=1,\dots,r\) is called a nonlinear flag of type \(\mathscr{S}=(S_1,\dots,S_r)\) in \(M\). The space of all nonlinear flags of type \(\mathscr{S}\) in \(M\) can be equipped with the structure of a Fréchet manifold in a natural way and is denoted by \(\mathrm{Flag}_{\mathscr{S}}(M)\). The main goal of this paper is to study the geometry of this space. A nonlinear Grassmannian is a special case of a nonlinear flag and corresponds to the case \(r=1\). The authors present some applications of nonlinear flag manifolds by using them to describe certain coadjoint orbits of the Hamiltonian group. If \(M\) is a closed symplectic manifold, \(\mathrm{Flag}_{\mathscr{S}}^{\mathrm{symp}}(M)\) is the open subset in \(\mathrm{Flag}_{\mathscr{S}}(M)\) consisting of all symplectic flags of type \(\mathscr{S}\), then the symplectic form on \(M\) induces by transgression a symplectic form on the manifold of symplectic nonlinear flags. The Hamiltonian group \(\mathrm{Ham}(M)\) acts on \(\mathrm{Flag}_{\mathscr{S}}^{\mathrm{symp}}(M)\) in a Hamiltonian fashion with equivariant moment map \(J:\mathrm{Flag}_{\mathscr{S}}^{\mathrm{symp}}(M)\to\mathfrak{ham}(M)^*\). This moment map is injective and identifies each connected component of \(\mathrm{Flag}_{\mathscr{S}}^{\mathrm{symp}}(M)\) with a coadjoint orbit of \(\mathrm{Ham}(M)\). The main result of the paper states that the restriction of the moment map \(J:\mathrm{Flag}_{\mathscr{S}}^{\mathrm{symp}}(M)\to\mathfrak{ham}(M)^*\) to any connected component is one-to-one onto a coadjoint orbit cf the Hamiltonian group \(\mathrm{Ham}(M)\). The Kostant-Kirillov-Souriau symplectic form \(\omega_{\mathrm{KKS}}\) on the coadjoint orbit satisfies \(J^*\omega_{\mathrm{KKS}}=\Omega\), where \(\Omega\) is a natural symplectic form.