Smooth covers on symplectic manifolds (Q2322859)

Let \((M,\omega)\) be a closed symplectic manifold and let \(\mathcal{U}=\{U_1,\dots,U_N\}\) be an open cover of \(M\). Polterovich recently introduced the \textit{pb invariant} of \((M,\mathcal{U})\) which is defined as \[ \operatorname{pb}(\mathcal{U})\,\,:=\,\,\underset{F}{\operatorname{inf}} \underset{(a_i),(b_i)\in [-1,1]^N}{\operatorname{sup}} \left\| \left\{ \sum_i a_if_i,\sum_j b_jf_j\right\}\right\|\] where \(\{-,-\}\) denotes the Poisson bracket and where \(F=\{f_1,\dots,f_N\}\) runs over all partitions of unity subordinated to \(\mathcal{U}\). As the authors put it, ``this number is a measure of the least amount of symplectic interaction that sets in \(\mathcal{U}\) can have''. The main goal of this paper is to study generalizations of the pb invariant to more general types of partitions of unity. Let \(M\) be a closed smooth \(n\)-dimensional manifold and let \(U\) be a bounded open subset of \(\mathbb{R}^n\) whose boundary is smooth. Furthermore let \(T\) be a compact smooth manifold that is equipped with a measure \(\mu\) of total volume \(1\) that comes from a volume-form \(dt\). A \textit{continuous cover} of \(M\) is defined as a continuous map \(G: T\times U\to M\) with the following properties: \begin{itemize} \item[(1)] for each \(t\in T\) the map \(G_t: U\to M\) is a smooth embedding that can be extended to a smooth embedding of a collar neighborhood of \(U\), \item[(2)] the images \(G_t(U)\) cover \(M\). \end{itemize} A \textit{smooth cover} is defined as above but with the extra requirement that \(G\) is smooth. A \textit{partition of unity} subordinate to a continuous cover \(G\) is defined as a smooth function \(\widetilde{F}: T\times U\to [0,\infty)\) such that the following are satisfied: \begin{itemize} \item[1.] Each \(\widetilde{F}_t: U\to \mathbb{R}\) is a smooth function with compact support. \item[2.] The closure of the union of the supports of the \(\widetilde{F}_t\) is contained in \(U\). \item[3.] For every \(x\in M\) we have \(\int_T \widetilde{F}(t,G_t^{-1}(x))\,dt=1\). \end{itemize} The authors show that every continuous cover admits a partition of unity. This result allows the authors to define a pb invariant of a symplectic manifold together with a continuous cover. If \(T\) is a finite set, then the definition recovers Polterovich's invariant. The main result of the paper says ``the pb invariant of any class of \(T\)-covers is equal to the pb invariant of an affiliated class of discrete covers''.