The symplectic vortex equations and invariants of Hamiltonian group actions (Q2491043)

In the remarkable paper under review the authors use solutions to symplectic vortex equations in order to introduce new invariants of Hamiltonian group actions that are similar to the Gromov-Witten invariants in the nonequivariant case. These invariants are then used to prove an existence theorem for relative periodic orbits. Other achievements of the paper are an explicit computation in the case of circle actions on a complex vector space, as well as a result on how the new invariants relate to the Seiberg-Witten invariants of a product of a Riemann surface with a 2-dimensional sphere. To describe the setting of the paper in some more detail, let \((M,\omega)\) be a symplectic manifold acted on by a compact Lie group \(G\) in a Hamiltonian fashion with an equivariant moment map \(\mu\colon M\to{\mathfrak g}\), where \({\mathfrak g}\) is the Lie algebra of \(G\). Also let \(P\to\Sigma\) be a principal \(G\)-bundle over a compact Riemann surface with a connection \(A\). Now assume that the moment map \(\mu\) is proper, the manifold \((M,\omega)\) is symplectically spherical in the sense that \(\int_{S^2}v^*\omega=0\) for every smooth function \(v\colon S^2\to M\), and in addition there exists a strongly convex structure \((f,J)\) on \(M\). The latter condition means that \(J\) is a \(G\)-invariant \(\omega\)-compatible almost complex structure on \(M\), \(f\colon M\to[0,\infty)\) a proper \(G\)-invariant function, and there exists a continuous function \(c\colon Z({\mathfrak g})\to{\mathbb R}\) such that \(f(x)\geq c(\tau)\) implies both the inequalities \(\langle\nabla_v\nabla f(x),v\rangle+ \langle\nabla_{Jv}\nabla f(x),Jv\rangle\geq0\) and \(df(x)J(x)L_x(\mu(x)-\tau)\geq0\) whenever \(x\in M\), \(v\in T_xM\), and \(\tau\in Z({\mathfrak g})\). (Here \(\nabla\) stands for the Levi-Cività connection associated with the metric \(\langle\cdot,\cdot\rangle=\omega(\cdot, J\cdot)\) and \(L_x\colon{\mathfrak g}\to T_xM\) denotes the infinitesimal action.) Then let \(\tau\in Z({\mathfrak g})\) be an element in the center of \({\mathfrak g}\), and fix a \(G\)-invariant almost complex structure on \(M\) and a Riemannian metric on \(\Sigma\). We say that an equivariant smooth function \(u\colon P\to M\) satisfies the symplectic vortex equations if \[ {\overline\partial}_{J,A}(u)=0\quad \text{and}\quad *F_A+\mu(u)=\tau, \] where \({\overline\partial}_{J,A}\) stands for the nonlinear Cauchy-Riemann operator twisted by the connection~\(A\). We note that the above hypotheses on the triple \((M,\omega,\mu)\) imply that the moduli space of gauge equivalence classes of solutions to the symplectic vortex equations is compact. Now denote by \(B\in H_2^G(M;{\mathbb Z})\) the equivariant cohomology class represented by \(u\), and assume that \(\tau\in Z({\mathfrak g})\) is in addition a regular value of the moment map \(\mu\). Then, the new invariants introduced in this paper actually take the form of a homomorphism \[ \Phi_{B,\Sigma}^{M,\mu-\tau}\colon H_G^*(M;{\mathbb Q})\to{\mathbb Q} \] that depends only on the component of \(\tau\) in the open set of central regular values of \(\mu\).