On certain geometric and homotopy properties of closed symplectic manifolds. (Q1868884)

Kähler manifolds are a subclass of symplectic manifolds but several homotopy properties enjoyed by Kähler manifolds are violated by symplectic manifolds. In particular, if \(M\) is a closed Kähler manifold, then (1) all odd-degree Betti numbers \(b_{2i+1}(M)\) are even, (2) \(M\) has the hard-Lefschetz property, (3) all Massey products (of all orders) in \(M\) vanish. As well known the closed symplectic manifolds violate these properties. However, it is not clear whether the above properties are independent or not in the case of closed symplectic manifolds or certain classes of these manifolds. In this paper, the authors consider two classes of symplectic manifolds: symplectically aspherical manifolds, simply-connected symplectic manifolds and study the relationship among the homotopy properties mentioned above. \textit{J. L. Brylinski} [J. Differ. Geom. 28, 93--114 (1988; Zbl 0634.58029)] and \textit{P. Libermann} [with \textit{C. Marle}, Symplectic geometry and analytical mechanics, Kluwer, Dordrecht (1987; Zbl 0643.53002)] introduced a symplectic star operator * (an analog of the Hodge star operator in terms of the symplectic structure). Employing this operator, a symplectic codifferential operator \(\delta \) is defined as \( \delta \equiv \) \((-1)^{k+1}(*d*)\), deg\,\(\delta= -1\). Now, symplectically harmonic differential forms \(\alpha \) are defined by the conditions: \(\delta\alpha =0\), \(d \alpha =0\). Let \(\Omega^{*}_{hr}(M,\omega )\) be the space of all symplectically harmonic forms on \(M\). Then the space \(H^{k}_{hr}(M)=\Omega ^{k}_{hr}/(\Omega ^{k}_{hr}\cap \text{Imd})\) is a subspace of the de Rham cohomology space \( H^{k}(M)\). Further, a closed smooth manifold \(M\) is said to be flexible if it possesses a continuous family of symplectic forms \(\omega _{t},t \in [a,b]\) such that \( h_{k}(M,\omega _{a}) \neq h_{k}(M,\omega _{b})\) for some \(k\), where \( h_{k}(M,\omega )= \dim H^{k}_{hr}(M,\omega)\). B. Khesin and D. McDuff posed the following question: Are there closed manifolds with a continuous family of \(\omega_{t}\) of symplectic structures such that \( h_{k}(M,\omega _{t})\) varies with respect to \(t\)? [\textit{D. Yan}, Adv. Math. 120, 143--154 (1996; Zbl 0872.58002)]. Yan constructed a closed \(4\)-dimensional manifold and answered this question affirmatively but remarked that there is no \(4\)-dimensional closed symplectic nilmanifold \(M\) with varying dimension of \(H^{*}_{hr}(M)\). In this context, the authors discuss the symplectically harmonic forms on a closed symplectic manifold and prove that there exists at least one \(6\)-dim indecomposable closed symplectic nilmanifold with varying dim \(H^{*}_{hr}(M)\). Moreover, in course of the publication of this paper, the authors made further progress in their studies and observed that there are precisely ten \(6\)-dimensional nilmanifolds with varying \(h_{i}\) for \(i=3,4,5\) [Comment. Math. Helv. 76, 89--109 (2001; Zbl 0999.53049)]. In an addendum, some other results are given with proofs thereof, notably ``there exists a closed, simply connected, symplectic manifold \(V\), \(\dim V = 8\) such that \( b_{3}(V) = 1\) and all the Massey products in \(V\) are trivial''.