Symplectic topology of Mañé's critical values (Q986686)

This paper studies dynamical systems in the twisted cotangent bundle of a Riemannian manifold \((M,g)\). The twisted cotangent bundle of \(M\) is \(T^*M\) with the symplectic form \(d\theta+\tau^*\sigma\) where \(\theta\) is the canonical form (equals to \(pdq\) in conjugate coordinates), \(\tau:T^*M\rightarrow M\) is the canonical projection and \(\sigma\) is a closed \(2\)-form on \(M\) vanishing on \(\pi_2(M)\). The authors consider particular Hamiltonian systems given by Hamiltonian functions \(H(\lambda)=\frac{1}{2}g(\lambda,\lambda)+U(\tau(\lambda))\) where \(U:M\rightarrow\mathbb{R}\) is a potential. Physically, \(\sigma\) plays the role of a magnetic field on \(M\). The main focus of the paper is on the change of the symplectic properties of the energy level sets \(H^{-1}(k)\) when \(k\) is below, equal or above a particular value of the energy called \textit{Mañé's critical value} defined by \[ c:=c(g,\sigma,U)=\inf\limits_{d\theta=\pi^*\sigma} \sup\limits_{q\in\widetilde{M}} H\circ\widetilde{\pi} (\theta_q), \] where \(\pi:\widetilde{M}\rightarrow M\) is the universal cover and \(\widetilde{\pi}\) is its lift to \(T^*M\). From the dynamical point of the view the interest is on whether the Hamiltonian flow on \(H^{-1}(k)\) admits a closed orbit in each non trivial free homotopy class of loops (similar to a geodesic flow) or a contractible periodic orbit. The authors are also interested in the displaceability of \(H^{-1}(k)\) and on whether or not \(H^{-1}(k)\) is stable (as defined in [\textit{H. Hofer} and \textit{E. Zehnder}, Symplectic invariants and Hamiltonian dynamics. Birkhäuser Advanced Texts. Basel: Birkhäuser (1994; Zbl 0805.58003)]) or virtually contact (i.e., of contact type when lifted to a finite cover). The authors give evidence of the following paradigms in several cases: If \(k<c\), then \(H^{-1}(k)\) is displaceable and stable. If \(k=c\), then \(H^{-1}(k)\) is non-displaceable but non-stable (hence non-contact). If \(k>c\), then \(H^{-1}(k)\) is non-displaceable, virtually contact and the Hamiltonian flow has a closed orbit in every non trivial free homotopy class of loops. The tool used to study these properties is Rabinovitz Floer homology (RFH). It is an invariant introduced in [\textit{K. Cieliebak} and \textit{U. A. Frauenfelder}, Pac. J. Math. 239, No. 2, 251--316 (2009; Zbl 1221.53112)] where it was defined for hypersurfaces of restricted contact type. Roughly speaking, for a hyper-surface \(\Sigma\) described as the \(0\) level set of a Hamiltonian \(\overline{H}\) in a geometrically bounded symplectic manifold \((V,\omega)\), RFH is a Floer type theory for the functional defined on \(\mathcal{L}\times\mathbb{R}\) where \(\mathcal{L}\) is the set of contractible loops in \(V\) by \[ \mathcal{A}(v,\eta)=\int_{D^2}\overline{v}^*\omega-\eta\int_0^1\overline{H}(v(t))dt \] where \(\overline{v}\) is a disk with boundary \(v\). Here, \(\eta\) plays the role of a Lagrange multiplier for the standard Floer action functional, constraining the critical points to loops on \(\Sigma\). In the paper under review, a thorough study of Rabinovitz Floer homology is done in the more general case of stable tame hypersurfaces in geometrically bounded symplectic manifolds and it is shown that it is well defined, i.e., it is invariant under deformation of these surfaces. In this case the compactness result differs from previous work. It is also shown that for the virtually contact case when \(\pi_1(\Sigma)\) injects in \(\pi_1(M)\) then \(RFH(\Sigma)\) is defined as a straightforward generalisation of [\textit{K. Cieliebak} and \textit{U. A. Frauenfelder}, Pac. J. Math. 239, No. 2, 251--316 (2009; Zbl 1221.53112)]. It is proved that if \(\Sigma\) is displaceable then \(RFH(\Sigma)\) vanishes, and when \(RFH(\Sigma)\) vanishes then it carries a periodic orbit contractible in \(V\). This allows to prove existence of a closed characteristic on some energy level on \(H^{-1}(k)\) when \(k<c\) on the one hand and non displaceabilty of \(H^{-1}(k)\) when \(k>c\) on the other in several particular cases. Finally, the paper contains also some explicit computations for such systems in the case of some homogeneous spaces. Those computation alsos provide evidences (and proofs in some cases) of the previous paradigms.