Symplectic Geometry: An Introduction based on the Seminar in Bern, 1992

This title is printed to order. This book may have been self-published. If so, we cannot guarantee the quality of the content. In the main most books will have gone through the editing process however some may not. We therefore suggest that you be aware of this before ordering this book. If in doubt check either the author or publisher’s details as we are unable to accept any returns unless they are faulty. Please contact us if you have any questions.

The seminar Symplectic Geometry at the University of Berne in summer 1992 showed that the topic of this book is a very active field, where many different branches of mathematics come tog9ther: differential geometry, topology, partial differential equations, variational calculus, and complex analysis. As usual in such a situation, it may be tedious to collect all the necessary ingredients. The present book is intended to give the nonspecialist a solid introduction to the recent developments in symplectic and contact geometry. Chapter 1 gives a review of the symplectic group Sp(n,R), sympkctic manifolds, and Hamiltonian systems (last but not least to fix the notations). The 1\Iaslov index for closed curves as well as arcs in Sp(n, R) is discussed. This index will be used in chapters 5 and 8. Chapter 2 contains a more detailed account of symplectic manifolds start ing with a proof of the Darboux theorem saying that there are no local in variants in symplectic geometry. The most important examples of symplectic manifolds will be introduced: cotangent spaces and Kahler manifolds. Finally we discuss the theory of coadjoint orbits and the Kostant-Souriau theorem, which are concerned with the question of which homogeneous spaces carry a symplectic structure.