A dual pair for the group of volume preserving diffeomorphisms (Q6919352)

This paper investigates the construction of symplectic dual pairs for the group of volume-preserving diffeomorphisms \(\text{Diff}(M, \mu)\) by performing symplectic reduction on the cotangent bundle of the space of smooth embeddings \(\text{Emb}(S, M)\). The work extends the foundational \text{EPDiff dual pair} introduced by Holm and Marsden, which relates the diffeomorphism group of \(M\) to that of the parameter space \(S\). The authors provide a detailed identification of coadjoint orbits with \textit{augmented nonlinear Grassmannians}. This approach complements earlier work by the authors on nonlinear Grassmannians as coadjoint orbits [\textit{S. Haller} and \textit{C. Vizman}, Math. Ann. 329, No. 4, 771--785 (2004; Zbl 1071.58005)] and the broader framework of dual pairs in fluid dynamics established by \textit{F. Gay-Balmaz} and \textit{C. Vizman} [Ann. Global Anal. Geom. 41, No. 1, 1--24 (2012; Zbl 1234.53027)]. The study is divided by the codimension of the embedding \(S \hookrightarrow M\). For \text{high codimension case} (\(\dim M - \dim S \ge 2\)), it is shown that the left action of \(\text{Diff}(M, \mu)\) remains infinitesimally transitive on the level sets of the right moment map, preserving the dual pair structure. In \text{codimension 1 case,} the authors address the loss of local transitivity by introducing \textit{isovolume} and \textit{isodrastic} foliations. The latter is an analogue of the isodrastic foliation for symplectic manifolds defined by \textit{A. Weinstein} [Adv. Math. 82, No. 2, 133--159 (1990; Zbl 0713.58015)]. They prove these foliations are integrable and that their leaves coincide with the orbits of the exact volume-preserving diffeomorphism group \(\text{Diff}_{c,ex}(M, \mu)\). Vortex Dynamics: building on the classical Clebsch variables and coadjoint orbit descriptions by \textit{J. Marsden} and \textit{A. Weinstein} [Proc. int. Conf., Los Alamos/N.M. 1982, Physica D 7, 305--323 (1983; Zbl 0576.58008)], the paper describes coadjoint orbits for singular vortex configurations, specifically the ``loop version'' of vortex dipoles. The proofs rely on the theory of Hamiltonian reduction by stages [\textit{J. E. Marsden} et al., Hamiltonian reduction by stages. Berlin: Springer (2007; Zbl 1129.37001)] and the relative Poincaré lemma. In the appendix, the authors contrast these infinite-dimensional results with a finite-dimensional matrix dual pair involving \(\text{SL}(n)\) and \(\text{GL}(m)\), clarifying where the dichotomy between the nonlinear and linear cases arises.