A two-cocycle on the group of symplectic diffeomorphisms (Q444166): Difference between revisions

Let \((M, d\lambda)\) be a connected exact symplectic manifold with trivial first real cohomology, \(H^1(M; \mathbb R) = 0\), and let \(\text{Symp}(M, d\lambda)\) denote the group of symplectic diffeomorphisms of \((M, d\lambda)\) with discrete topology. The authors investigate properties of a two-cocycle \(\theta\) on the discrete group \(\text{Symp}(M, d\lambda)\) defined by \textit{R. S. Ismagilov, M. Losik} and \textit{P. W. Michor} [Mosc. Math. J. 6, No. 2, 307--315 (2006; Zbl 1132.53043)]. Roughly, \(\theta\) is defined by assigning to a pair of elements \(g, h \in \text{Symp}(M, d\lambda)\) the real number given by the path integral of the 1-form \(g^*(\lambda) - \lambda\) along a path connecting an arbitrary point \(x\in M\) to the point \(h(x)\). It takes of course some work to show that the two-cocycle \(\theta\) is well defined. Ismagilov, Losik and Michor proved that \(\theta\) is cohomologically nontrivial when \(M\) is either the standard symplectic \({\mathbb R}^{2n}\) or a Hermitian symmetric space. In the present paper, the authors prove the following generalization (Theorem): If \((M,d\lambda)\) is the universal cover of a closed symplectic manifold \((X, \sigma)\), then the cocycle \(\theta\) represents a nonzero cohomology class.