Symplectic invariants and Hamiltonian dynamics (Q2430560)

The discoveries of the past fifteen years have opened new perspectives for the field of Hamiltonian dynamics and have led to the creation of symplectic topology. It is astonishing to see how analysis, differential geometry, algebraic topology and physics interplay in a beautiful way to form the body of the subject to which the book is devoted. The book has 6 chapters and an appendix. The introductory chapter presents some background material. The definitions of symplectic manifolds and symplectic mappings are given and the Hamiltonian formalism is briefly recalled. The Cartans calculus is used. In a systematic way the symplectic invariants, called symplectic capacities, are introduced axiomatically in Chapter 2. Chapter 3 is entirely devoted to a very detailed construction of a distinguished symplectic capacity \(C_0\). It is dynamically defined by means of Hamiltonian systems. In Chapter 4 the dynamical capacity \(C_0\) is applied to an old question of the qualitative theory of Hamiltonian systems originating in celestial mechanics: does a compact energy surface carry a periodic orbit? In Chapter 5, the subgroup \(\mathcal D\) of symplectic diffeomorphisms of \(\mathbb R^{2n}\) is studied. The subject of Chapter 6 is the fixed point theory for Hamiltonian mappings on compact symplectic manifolds \((M,\omega )\). It differs from topological fixed point theories. The Appendix contains some technical topics presented for the convenience of the reader.