Given a symplectic manifold , there is the group of Hamiltonian symplectomorphisms acting on . If is prequantizable this lifts to the group of quantomorphisms, both of them covering the diffeomorphisms of :
quantomorphisms Hamiltonian symplectomorphisms diffeomorphisms .
A Hamiltonian action of a Lie group on is an action by quantomorphisms, hence a Lie group homomorphism
In the literature this is usually discussed at the infinitesimal level, hence for the corresponding Lie algebras:
smooth functions+Poisson bracket Hamiltonian vector fields vector fields
Now an (infinitesimal) Hamiltonian action is a Lie algebra homomorphism to the Poisson bracket-algebra:
Dualizing, the homomorphism is equivalently a linear map
which is a homomorphism of Poisson manifolds, called the moment map of the (infinitesimal) Hamiltonian -action.
Warning The lift from to above, hence from the existence of Hamiltonians to an actual choice of Hamiltonians is in general not unique. In the literature the difference between and (or of their Lie theoretic analogs) is not always made clear.
By Atiyah & Bott, the action of a Lie algebra on a symplectic manifold is Hamiltonian if and only if the symplectic form has a (basic, closed) extension to equivariant de Rham cohomology.
projective Hamiltonian action: classical anomaly
A comprehensive account:
The perspective on Hamiltonian actions in terms of maps to extensions, infinitesimally and integrally, is made explicit in
The characterization in equivariant cohomology is due to
Generalization to Hamiltonian actions by a Lie algebroid (instead of just a Lie algebra) is discussed in
Last revised on February 6, 2024 at 07:58:04. See the history of this page for a list of all contributions to it.