Symplectic manifold
In mathematics, a symplectic manifold is a smooth man-
ifold, M, equipped with a closed nondegenerate differ-
ential 2-form, ω, called the symplectic form. The study
of symplectic manifolds is called symplectic geometry or
symplectic topology. Symplectic manifolds arise natu-
rally in abstract formulations of classical mechanics and
analytical mechanics as the cotangent bundles of mani-
folds. For example, in the Hamiltonian formulation of
classical mechanics, which provides one of the major mo-
tivations for the field, the set of all possible configurations
of a system is modeled as a manifold, and this manifold’s
cotangent bundle describes the phase space of the system.
Any real-valued differentiable function, H, on a symplec-
tic manifold can serve as an energy function or Hamil-
tonian. Associated to any Hamiltonian is a Hamiltonian
vector field; the integral curves of the Hamiltonian vector
field are solutions to Hamilton’s equations. The Hamilto-
nian vector field defines a flow on the symplectic mani-
fold, called a Hamiltonian flow or symplectomorphism.
By Liouville’s theorem, Hamiltonian flows preserve the
volume form on the phase space.
1 Motivation
Symplectic manifolds arise from classical mechanics, in
particular, they are a generalization of the phase space of
a closed system.[1] In the same way the Hamilton equa-
tions allow one to derive the time evolution of a system
from a set of differential equations, the symplectic form
should allow one to obtain a vector field describing the
flow of the system from the differential dH of a Hamil-
Ω=
tonian function H.[2] So we require a linear map TM →
* * *
T M, or equivalently, an element of T M ⊗ T M. Letting
ω denote a section of T * M ⊗ T * M, the requirement that
ω be non-degenerate ensures that for every differential 4 Lagrangian and other submani-
dH there is a unique corresponding vector field VH such
that dH = ω(VH, · ). Since one desires the Hamiltonian
to be constant along flow lines, one should have dH(VH)
= ω(VH, VH) = 0, which implies that ω is alternating and There are several natural geometric notions of
hence a 2-form. Finally, one makes the requirement that submanifold of a symplectic manifold.
ω should not change under flow lines, i.e. that the Lie
derivative of ω along VH vanishes. Applying Cartan’s
formula, this amounts to
LVH (ω) = dω(VH ) = 0
which is equivalent to the requirement that ω should be
closed.
2 Definition
A symplectic form on a manifold M is a closed
non-degenerate differential 2-form ω.[3][4] Here, non-
degenerate means that for all p ∈ M, if there exists an
X ∈ TpM such that ω(X,Y) = 0 for all Y ∈ TpM, then X =
0. The skew-symmetric condition (inherent in the defi-
nition of differential 2-form) means that for all p ∈ M we
have ω(X,Y) = −ω(Y,X) for all X,Y ∈ TpM. In odd dimen-
sions, antisymmetric matrices are not invertible. Since ω
is a differential two-form, the skew-symmetric condition
implies that M has even dimension.[3][4] The closed con-
dition means that the exterior derivative of ω vanishes,
dω = 0. A symplectic manifold consists of a pair (M,ω),
of a manifold M and a symplectic form ω. Assigning a
symplectic form ω to a manifold M is referred to as giving
M a symplectic structure.
3 Linear symplectic manifold
There is a standard linear model, namely a symplectic
vector space R2n . Let R2n have the basis {v1 , ..., v₂n}.
Then we define our symplectic form ω so that for all 1 ≤
i ≤ n we have ω(vi,vn₊i) = 1, ω(vn₊i,vi) = −1, and ω is
zero for all other pairs of basis vectors. In this case the
symplectic form reduces to a simple quadratic form. If In
denotes the n × n identity matrix then the matrix, Ω, of
this quadratic form is given by the (2n × 2n) block matrix:
( )
0 In
.
−In 0
folds
• symplectic submanifolds (potentially of any even
dimension) are submanifolds where the symplectic
form is required to induce a symplectic form on
them.
• isotropic submanifolds are submanifolds where
the symplectic form restricts to zero, i.e. each tan-
gent space is an isotropic subspace of the ambient
1
2 6 LAGRANGIAN MAPPING

manifold’s tangent space. Similarly, if each tangent
subspace to a submanifold is co-isotropic (the dual
of an isotropic subspace), the submanifold is called
co-isotropic.
• Lagrangian submanifolds of a sympletic manifold
(M, ω) are submanifolds where the restriction of
the symplectic form ω to L ⊂ M is vanishing, i.e.
ω|L = 0 and dimL = 1/2 · dimM . Langrangian
submanifolds are the maximal isotropic submani-
folds.
The most important case of the isotropic submanifolds is
that of Lagrangian submanifolds. A Lagrangian sub-
manifold is, by definition, an isotropic submanifold of
maximal dimension, namely half the dimension of the
ambient symplectic manifold. One major example is that
the graph of a symplectomorphism in the product sym-
plectic manifold (M × M, ω × −ω) is Lagrangian. Their
intersections display rigidity properties not possessed by
smooth manifolds; the Arnold conjecture gives the sum
of the submanifold’s Betti numbers as a lower bound for
the number of self intersections of a smooth Lagrangian
submanifold, rather than the Euler characteristic in the
smooth case.
4.1 Examples
Let R2n x,y have global coordinates labelled
(x1 , . . . , xn , y1 , . . . , yn ) . Then, we can
equip R2n x,y with the canonical symplectic form
ω = dx1 ∧ dy1 + · · · + dxn ∧ dyn . There is a
standard Lagrangian submanifold given by Rnx → R2n x,y
. The form ω vanishes on Rnx because given any pair
of tangent vectors X = fi (x)∂xi , Y = gi (x)∂xi , we
have that ω(X, Y ) = 0 . To elucidate, consider the
case n = 1 . Then, X = f (x)∂x , Y = g(x)∂x , and
ω = dx ∧ dy . Notice that when we expand this out
coordinates dx = 0 and dy = 0 , giving us the zero
section. This example can be repeated for any mani-
fold defined by the vanishing locus of smooth functions
f1 , . . . , fk and their differentials df1 , . . . , dfk .
Another useful class of Lagrangian submanifolds can be
found using morse theory. Given a morse function f :
M → R and for a small enough ε one can construct
a Lagrangian submanifold given by the vanishing locus
V(ε · df ) ⊂ T ∗ M . For a generic morse function we
have a Lagrangian intersection given by M ∩ V(ε · df ) =
Crit(f ) .
See also: symplectic category
4.2 Special Lagrangian submanifolds
In the case of Kahler manifolds (or Calabi-Yau mani-
folds) we can make a choice Ω = Ω1 + iΩ2 on M as
a holomorphic n-form, where Ω1 is the real part and Ω2
imaginary. A Lagrangian submanifold L is called spe-
cial if in addition to the above Lagrangian condition the
restriction Ω2 to L is vanishing. In other word, the real
part Ω1 restricted on L leads the volume form on L . The
following examples are known as special Lagrangian sub-
manifolds,
1. complex Lagrangian submanifolds of
hyperKahler manifolds,
2. fixed points of a real structure of Calabi-
Yau manifolds.
The SYZ conjecture has been proved for special La-
grangian submanifolds but in general, it is open, and
brings a lot of impacts to the study of mirror symmetry.
see (Hitchin 1999)

1 5 Lagrangian fibration
ω(X, Y ) = ω(f (x)∂x , g(x)∂x ) = f (x)g(x)(dx(∂x )dy(∂x )−dy(∂x )dx(∂x ))
2
A Lagrangian fibration of a symplectic manifold M is
both terms we have a dy(∂x ) factor, which is 0, by defi-
a fibration where all of the fibres are Lagrangian subman-
nition.
ifolds. Since M is even-dimensional we can take local
The cotangent bundle of a manifold is locally modeled coordinates (p1 ,…,pn,q1 ,…,qn), and by Darboux’s theo-
on a space similar to the first example. It can be shown rem the symplectic form ω can be, at least locally, written
that we can glue these affine symplectic forms hence this as ω = ∑ dpk ∧ dqk, where d denotes the exterior deriva-
bundle forms a symplectic manifold. A more non-trivial tive and ∧ denotes the exterior product. Using this set-up
example of a Lagrangian submanifold is the zero section we can locally think of M as being the cotangent bundle
of the cotangent bundle of a manifold. For example, let T*Rn , and the Lagrangian fibration as the trivial fibration
X = {(x, y) ∈ R2 : y 2 − x = 0} . Then, we can present π : T*Rn ↠ Rn . This is the canonical picture.
T ∗ X as

6 Lagrangian mapping
T ∗ X = {(x, y, dx, dy) ∈ R4 : y 2 −x = 0, 2ydy−dx = 0}
where we are treating the symbols dx, dy as coordinates Let L be a Lagrangian submanifold of a symplectic man-
of R4 = T ∗ R2 . We can consider the subset where the ifold (K,ω) given by an immersion i : L ↪ K (i is called

a Lagrangian immersion). Let π : K ↠ B give a La-
grangian fibration of K. The composite (π ∘ i) : L ↪ K ↠
B is a Lagrangian mapping. The critical value set of π
∘ i is called a caustic.
Two Lagrangian maps (π1 ∘ i1 ) : L1 ↪ K 1 ↠ B1 and (π2
∘ i2 ) : L2 ↪ K 2 ↠ B2 are called Lagrangian equivalent
if there exist diffeomorphisms σ, τ and ν such that both
sides of the diagram given on the right commute, and τ
preserves the symplectic form.[4] Symbolically:
τ ◦ i1 = i2 ◦ σ, ν ◦ π1 = π2 ◦ τ, τ ∗ ω2 = ω1 ,
where τ*ω2 denotes the pull back of ω2 by τ.
7 Special cases and generalizations
• A symplectic manifold endowed with a metric that
is compatible with the symplectic form is an almost
Kähler manifold in the sense that the tangent bundle
has an almost complex structure, but this need not
be integrable.
• Symplectic manifolds are special cases of a Poisson
manifold. The definition of a symplectic manifold
requires that the symplectic form be non-degenerate
everywhere, but if this condition is violated, the
manifold may still be a Poisson manifold.
• A multisymplectic manifold of degree k is a
manifold equipped with a closed nondegenerate k-
form.[5]
• A polysymplectic manifold is a Legendre bundle
provided with a polysymplectic tangent-valued (n +
2) -form; it is utilized in Hamiltonian field theory.[6]
8 See also
• Almost complex manifold
• Almost symplectic manifold
• Contact manifold − an odd-dimensional counterpart
of the symplectic manifold.
3
• Fedosov manifold
• Poisson bracket
• Symplectic group
• Symplectic matrix
• Symplectic topology
• Symplectic vector space
• Symplectomorphism
• Tautological one-form
• Wirtinger inequality (2-forms)
• Covariant Hamiltonian field theory
9 Notes
[1] Ben Webster: What is a symplectic manifold, re-
ally? http://sbseminar.wordpress.com/2012/01/09/
what-is-a-symplectic-manifold-really/
[2] Henry Cohn: Why symplectic geometry is the natural
setting for classical mechanics http://research.microsoft.
com/en-us/um/people/cohn/thoughts/symplectic.html
[3] Maurice de Gosson: Symplectic Geometry and Quantum
Mechanics (2006) Birkhäuser Verlag, Basel ISBN 3-7643-
7574-4. (page 10)
[4] Arnold, V. I.; Varchenko, A. N.; Gusein-Zade, S. M.
(1985). The Classification of Critical Points, Caustics and
Wave Fronts: Singularities of Differentiable Maps, Vol 1.
Birkhäuser. ISBN 0-8176-3187-9.
[5] F. Cantrijn, L. A. Ibort and M. de León, J. Austral. Math.
Soc. Ser. A 66 (1999), no. 3, 303-330.
[6] G. Giachetta, L. Mangiarotti and G. Sardanashvily, Co-
variant Hamiltonian equations for field theory, Journal of
Physics A32 (1999) 6629-6642; arXiv: hep-th/9904062.
10 References
• Dusa McDuff and D. Salamon: Introduction to
Symplectic Topology (1998) Oxford Mathematical
Monographs, ISBN 0-19-850451-9.
• Dennis Auroux Seminar on Mirror Symmetry https:
//math.berkeley.edu/~{}auroux/290s16.html
• Eckhard Meinrenken Symplectic Geometry
http://www.math.toronto.edu/mein/teaching/
LectureNotes/sympl.pdf
• Ralph Abraham and Jerrold E. Marsden, Founda-
tions of Mechanics, (1978) Benjamin-Cummings,
London ISBN 0-8053-0102-X See section 3.2.
4 11 EXTERNAL LINKS

• Maurice A. de Gosson: Symplectic Geometry and

Quantum Mechanics (2006) Birkhäuser Verlag,
Basel ISBN 3-7643-7574-4.

• Alan Weinstein (1971). “Symplectic manifolds and

their lagrangian submanifolds”. Adv Math. 6 (3):
329–46. doi:10.1016/0001-8708(71)90020-X.

11 External links
• How to find Lagrangian Submanifolds -
Math.Stackexchange

• Ü. Lumiste (2001), “Symplectic Structure”, in

Hazewinkel, Michiel, Encyclopedia of Mathematics,
Springer, ISBN 978-1-55608-010-4
• Sardanashvily, G., Fibre bundles, jet man-
ifolds and Lagrangian theory. Lectures for
theoreticians,arXiv: 0908.1886

• McDuff, D., Symplectic structures - a new approach

to geometry, Notices AMS, November 1998

• “Examples of symplectic manifolds”. PlanetMath.

• Hitchin, Nigel (1999). “LECTURES ON SPECIAL
LAGRANGIAN SUBMANIFOLDS”. Studies in
advanced mathematics. On arxiv url=http://arxiv.
org/abs/math/9907034
 5

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