Reduction theory for singular symplectic manifolds and singular forms on moduli spaces (Q6110349)

The aim of this paper is to extend the concept of Marsden-Weinstein symplectic reduction in order to include symplectic manifolds with singular structures and extend the admissible Hamiltonian functions beyond the category of smooth of functions. The authors do this for a class of Poisson manifolds that includes \(b\)-symplectic or \(\log\)-symplectic (and \(b^m\)-symplectic) manifolds and certain folded symplectic manifolds. Moreover, they allow the reduction manifolds to have more general singularities. Let us recall that the investigation of symmetries of \(b\)-symplectic manifolds and folded-symplectic manifolds is well-understood when the group under consideration is a torus. However, reduction theory has not been set in this realm in full generality. This is fundamental, among other reasons, to improve the understanding of geometric quantization. In this paper, the authors fill in this gap and investigate the Marsden-Weinstein reduction theory under general symmetries for general \(b^m\)-symplectic manifolds and other singular symplectic manifolds, including certain folded symplectic manifolds. They start with a symplectic template and use the desingularization technique of \textit{V. Guillemin} et al. [Int. Math. Res. Not. 2019, No. 10, 2981--2998 (2019; Zbl 1430.53089)] to obtain a singular toy model (of \(b^m\)-type for even \(m\)) by an ad-hoc construction from a symplectic template. This moduli space, which is symplectic, can be also seen as a reduction obtained from a singular model. This toy example inspires the authors to extend the identification between moduli space and symplectic reduction to the singular realm and formally define the symplectic reduction for arbitrary Lie groups for \(b^m\)-symplectic manifold. Other motivating examples come from Yang-Mills fields theories on manifolds with boundary, as in [\textit{P. Mir} et al., J. Phys. A, Math. Theor. 56, No. 23, Article ID 235201, 43 p. (2023; Zbl 1523.81127)]. In this new framework, the set of admissible Hamiltonian functions is larger than the category of smooth functions as it takes the singularities of the differential forms into account. The quasi-Hamiltonian set-up is also considered and brand-new constructions of singular quasi-Hamiltonian spaces are obtained via a reduction procedure and the fusion product.