First steps in stable Hamiltonian topology (Q2019199)

A stable Hamiltonian structure (SHS) is a generalization of a contact structure as well as a taut foliation defined by a closed \(1\)-form. These structures were introduced by \textit{H. Hofer} and \textit{E. Zehnder} [Symplectic invariants and Hamiltonian dynamics. Basel: Birkhäuser (1994; Zbl 0805.58003)] as a condition on hypersurfaces for which the Weinstein conjecture can be proved. The present long paper is an excellent survey on the topology of SHS due to their implications in the foundations of symplectic field theory. For a de Rham cohomology class \(\eta \in H^2(M, \mathbb{R})\) the space of SHS with \([\omega ]=\eta \) equipped with the \(C^k\)-topology for some \(2\leq k\leq \infty \) is denoted by \(\mathrm{SHS}_{\eta }(M)\). Hence, the main result of this study is the following reformulation of Theorem 4.4: Every SHS \((\omega , \lambda )\) on a closed \(3\)-manifold \(M\) has a \(C^5\)-neighbourhood in \(\mathrm{SHS}_{[\omega ]}(M)\) in which all SHS are stable homotopic to \((\omega , \lambda )\). This means that for any closed \(3\)-manifold \(M\) and cohomology class \(\eta \in H^2(M, \mathbb{R})\) the space \(\mathrm{SHS}_{\eta }(M)/\sim\) is discrete in the topological sense, which justifies the term of \textit{stable Hamiltonian structure}.