Geometric variants of the Hofer norm. (Q1872795)

The paper deals with some geometrically defined seminorms on the group \(\text{Ham}\) of Hamiltonian diffeomorphisms of a closed symplectic manifold \((M,\omega)\) and on its universal cover \(\widetilde{\text{Ham}}\). Let \(H= H_t(x)\) be a time-dependent Hamiltonian on \(M\) with vanishing mean: \(\int_M H_t\,\omega^n = 0\) for all \(t\). Let \(\phi=\phi_1\in{\text{Ham}}\) be the solution of the corresponding Hamilton equation \(\phi'_t = X_{H_t}\circ \phi_t\), \(\phi_0 = {\text{ id}}\), at time \(1\) and \(\widetilde{\phi}\in \widetilde{\text{Ham}}\) the corresponding homotopy class of paths from the identity map to \(\phi\). Then the seminorm \(\widetilde{\rho}^\pm(\widetilde {\phi})\) on \(\widetilde{\text{Ham}}\) is the infimum of \(\int_0^1 (\max_{x\in M}(\pm H_t))dt\) taken over all possible time-dependent Hamiltonians whose path of diffeomorphisms connects \(\text{ id}\) and \(\phi\) and is homotopic to \(\widetilde {\phi}\). The seminorms \(\rho^\pm(\phi)\) on \(\text{Ham}\) are given by the infimum taken over all possible paths from \(\text{ id}\) to \(\phi\). The usual Hofer norm \(\rho\) on \(\text{ Ham}\) is given by the infimum of \(\int_0^1(\max_{x\in M}H_t - \min_{x\in M}H_t)dt\) over all paths from \(\text{ id}\) to \(\phi\) and similarly for \(\widetilde{\rho}\) with fixed homotopy class. In addition, the following seminorms are also considered: \(\rho^++\rho^-\) and \(\rho_f={\text{ inf}}\{\widetilde {\rho}^+ (\tilde\phi)+\widetilde{\rho}^-(\tilde\phi)\,| \, \tilde\phi{\text{ lifts }}\phi\}\) on \(\text{ Ham}\) and \(\widetilde{\rho}^+ +\widetilde {\rho}^-\) on \(\widetilde{\phi}\in \widetilde{\text{ Ham}}\). The following inequalities hold: \(\rho^+ +\rho^-\leq\rho_f\leq\rho\) and \(\widetilde{\rho}^+ +\widetilde{\rho}^-\leq \widetilde{\rho}\). One of the main results states that \(\rho_f\) is always a norm and \(\rho^++\rho^-\) is a norm if \((M,\omega)\) is weakly exact or \(\mathbb{C} P^n\). In each of these cases the geodesics in \(\text{Ham}\) are described as follows: A path in \(\text{ Ham}\) is geodesic with respect to the considered norm if and only if both the maximum and minimum of the corresponding Hamiltonian are fixed in \(t\). Moreover, it is shown in an explicit example that the sum \(\rho^++\rho^-\) differs from \(\rho_f\) and hence from the Hofer norm \(\rho\). The proof of nondegeneracy for any of these seminorms is reduced to the nonsqueezing theorem for an \(S^2\) bundle over \(M\), associated to a time-\(1\) periodic Hamiltonian path. This problem is handled via the modified Siedel representation \(\Psi:\pi_1({\text{Ham}})\to(QH_{\text{ev}})(M)^\times\), where \(QH_{\text{ev}}\) is the even part of the second quantum homology and \(^\times\) denotes the commutative subgroup of multiplicative units.