Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2002/iii/paper-16/1/b/solution
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2002 iii Paper 16 1 b Solution by
Codex 0 Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Take in the identity component and choose a smooth symplectic isotopy from the identity to . Let its generating vector field be . Differentiating givesThus is a closed differential one-form. By the vanishing of the first de Rham cohomology, it is exact, so choose with .
The primitives can be chosen smoothly in both and the point. On each connected component fix a base point and define . Exactness makes this independent of the chosen path. In a coordinate neighbourhood of any point, use a fixed path to the neighbourhood's centre followed by a smoothly varying short path; this shows smooth dependence locally, and hence globally. One may subtract a time-dependent mean without changing the Hamiltonian vector field. Therefore the original symplectic isotopy is Hamiltonian, and .
Here the usual description of by smooth isotopies agrees with the topological identity component. To see the local path-connectedness behind that description, use a Weinstein neighborhood of the diagonal in . The graph of a symplectomorphism close to the identity corresponds to the graph of a small closed one-form on the diagonal. Multiplying that one-form by gives Lagrangian graphs; for sufficiently small forms their first projections remain diffeomorphisms, so they give symplectomorphisms connecting the original map to the identity. These local paths, translated in the group and concatenated with smooth time reparametrizations, identify its connected and smooth-path components.
Conversely every Hamiltonian isotopy is symplectic by part (a), and connects its time-one map to the identity. Hence
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