A symplectic manifold is a smooth even-dimensional manifold with a differential two-form that is closed, , and nondegenerate at every point. Nondegeneracy identifies vector fields with differential one-forms by the interior product . In this solution use the explicit Hamiltonian vector field convention
This contraction sign differs from the negative-sign convention sometimes used for Hamiltonian vector fields; all subsequent signs are fixed by the displayed choice. In Darboux coordinates with it gives
The Poisson bracket is bilinear and antisymmetric, and the ordinary product rule gives . Thus it remains to check the Jacobi identity for the Poisson bracket.
The Cartan formula for the Lie derivative and closedness of the symplectic form give . Hence
and nondegeneracy gives
Applying both sides to an arbitrary smooth function gives , which is exactly the Jacobi identity for the Poisson bracket. Consequently the smooth functions, with their pointwise product and this Poisson bracket, form a Poisson algebra. Constants have zero Hamiltonian vector field. If are components of moment maps, the same displayed relation relates the brackets of their Hamiltonian vector fields to the Poisson bracket of those components. In the opposite contraction convention the corresponding relation is the Hamiltonian Lie algebra homomorphism with the compatible bracket sign.
For the point vortices, remove the collision diagonals from , since the logarithmic Hamiltonian function is singular there. Set for . Differentiating each pair contribution gives
The Hamiltonian vector field therefore gives the equations of motion
Each contribution is perpendicular to the displacement from vortex to vortex and has magnitude . This is the velocity induced by a point vortex of positive circulation, with the normalization . Each vortex is advected by the velocity of the others, without a self-induced singular velocity. Pairwise contributions cancel in the total velocity, so and are conserved. For two vortices the separation is constant and they rotate counterclockwise about their midpoint, as expected for identical positive point vortices.
For , compute its Poisson bracket with directly:
The last sum vanishes by pairing with , since their numerators are opposite and denominators equal. Thus Poisson commutes with and is conserved. Equivalently, the Hamiltonian function depends only on pairwise distances and is invariant under simultaneous rotations.
The standard positive generator of the simultaneous circle group action is
Its interior product with the symplectic form is
Use the moment map convention for the usual positive rotation generator. Identifying with , this proves is the moment map for the standard rotation action. It is invariant under the action, hence equivariant because circle group is abelian. Additive constants are possible; the natural normalization is at the origin of the ambient space. On the collision-free space this polynomial is its restriction. With the solution's positive contraction convention, the rotation generator is . Confusing these two signs would reverse the final augmented Hamiltonian.
Let denote simultaneous counterclockwise rotation through , and introduce the co-rotating coordinates by . Both the symplectic form and are rotation-invariant, so pulling back the inertial Hamiltonian vector field leaves unchanged. Differentiating the rotation gives the co-rotating equation
The co-rotating positions are constant precisely when this Hamiltonian vector field vanishes. By nondegeneracy of the symplectic form, that is equivalent to
Conversely a collision-free critical point of this augmented Hamiltonian function produces a rigidly rotating solution. This is a rotating point-vortex relative equilibrium.
As a sign and scaling check, scaling every position by changes by . Therefore . At a rotating point-vortex relative equilibrium, , so . For the angular velocity is positive in this circulation convention. An equilateral three-vortex configuration of circumradius has and , agreeing directly with the equations of motion.
Use the Hamiltonian vector field convention . A smooth time-dependent Hamiltonian function with flow defined over the whole interval generates the Hamiltonian isotopy determined by
The group of Hamiltonian diffeomorphisms is
These maps are symplectomorphisms: by Cartan's magic formula, . Thus .
The term “group” is justified explicitly. If are generated by , their product path is generated by , since the pushforward of by a symplectomorphism is . The inverse path is generated by . The zero Hamiltonian gives the identity.
On a closed symplectic manifold, all these flows exist on the finite time interval. On an open manifold one often means the compactly supported Hamiltonian diffeomorphism group , using Hamiltonians with compact support in . We use that subgroup for the finite-energy definitions on Euclidean space below. The unrestricted complete-flow group is needed for the global cotangent translations in Question 4; those translations are generally not compactly supported.
Take in the identity component and choose a smooth symplectic isotopy from the identity to . Let its generating vector field be . Differentiating gives
Thus 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
Choose coordinates with standard symplectic form , and regard the given sphere as lying in . With , the linear Hamiltonian function has Hamiltonian vector field and translates in the missing coordinate.
To make this a permissible compactly supported map, take a smooth cutoff equal to one on an open neighbourhood of the fixed compact swept set
Choose with compact support and let . For put . On the whole swept region the cutoff is locally constant, so its derivatives vanish and . Thus the flow carries every to for .
The time-one image lies in and is disjoint from the original sphere. Its Hofer metric from the spatial supremum norm obeys
In the oscillation convention the upper bound is . Since can approach zero while the cutoff and stay fixed,
This proves the zero displacement energy for a compact set in a hyperplane; it does not assert that any one nonidentity displacing map has zero norm.
Write the exact differential form as for a smooth real-valued function on . On take the Hamiltonian function . With and , the Hamiltonian vector field is
Its complete flow is explicit:
The base point stays fixed, so this flow exists for all real , even if is unbounded on a noncompact base. Its time-one map is exactly , proving that the cotangent fiber translation is a Hamiltonian diffeomorphism in the unrestricted complete-flow group.
This construction also justifies the hint for this family, without treating exactness as a general substitute for a Hamiltonian isotopy. For any Hamiltonian isotopy on this cotangent bundle, Cartan's magic formula, and give
Integrating proves that is exact. For the present translation this difference is , which is exact if and only if is exact: one direction is pullback of , and the other is pullback by the zero section. Necessity therefore follows from the differential identity, while sufficiency follows from the complete flow just constructed.
Compact support is a separate issue. If is nonzero at some , the map moves every point of the entire unbounded fiber over , so it is not a member of the compactly supported Hamiltonian diffeomorphism group. For example , gives . Thus the claim about this global translation uses the full Hamiltonian group, not ; its flow can be cut off to agree on a prescribed compact swept set, but such a cutoff does not give the same map on the entire cotangent bundle.
A Poisson manifold has a skew bilinear bracket on smooth functions which is a derivation in each argument and satisfies the Jacobi identity. Locally a Poisson bivector represents it by
The derivation property is automatic for this expression. On applying the Jacobi identity to coordinate functions, and then using the derivation property for arbitrary functions, the necessary and sufficient condition is
Equivalently its Schouten-Nijenhuis bracket vanishes.
A symplectic manifold has a closed nondegenerate two-form . Write its coefficient matrix as and set . It is skew and defines the bracket above. Differentiating gives . Substitution into the Jacobi condition gives
where the last equality is . Thus every symplectic manifold is Poisson. In this convention the Hamiltonian vector field satisfies , and ; this will also be the convention below.
The converse fails because a Poisson bivector need not be invertible. On , take . Its bracket is identically zero and satisfies every Poisson axiom, but it cannot be the inverse of any nondegenerate two-form. This is an even-dimensional counterexample, so odd dimension is not the only obstruction.
A Poisson manifold is a smooth manifold with a bilinear bracket on that is antisymmetric, satisfies the Jacobi identity and obeys . Equivalently it has a bivector defining with vanishing Schouten bracket ; nondegeneracy is not required.
For a symplectic manifold, define the Hamiltonian vector field by and put . Nondegeneracy gives a unique , antisymmetry is inherited from , and proves the Leibniz rule. Moreover by Cartan's magic formula. Since ,
For completeness, evaluate on . Its three derivative terms sum to minus the cyclic sum of , and its three bracket terms sum to minus the same cyclic sum, using the displayed identity. Hence that sum is zero. This proves the Jacobi identity for the Poisson bracket, not merely the Jacobi identity modulo constants. The inverse of a closed nondegenerate two-form therefore defines a Poisson manifold.
The Symplectic Darboux theorem says that near every point of a -dimensional symplectic manifold there are coordinates with
Thus every symplectic structure has the same local normal form, despite possible global topological differences.
A field has infinitely many degrees of freedom: its initial state is a function rather than a finite list of coordinates. For a Hamiltonian evolution, the analogue of the finite-dimensional construction seeks an infinite sequence of independent conserved functionals whose Poisson brackets vanish. Their Hamiltonian vector fields then define commuting time evolutions. For example, a Poisson operator produces the field equation , where is the variational derivative.
A Lax equation packages many conservation laws into one operator identity. If , cyclicity of an appropriate trace gives
For a formal pseudodifferential operator the relevant trace is the Adler trace; suitable fractional powers of a monic differential operator produce further conserved functionals. A Lenard-Magri recursion can prove that such functionals are Poisson-commuting functions, rather than merely conserved quantities. A Lax equation by itself does not establish all the independence and completeness properties needed for integrability.
The Korteweg-De Vries equation illustrates the mechanism. In one time normalization take and . Direct composition gives
Its spectral problem, together with the inverse scattering transform for decaying data or suitable spectral coordinates for periodic data, turns nonlinear evolution into simple evolution of spectral data. Solitary waves arise from discrete spectral data, while continuous data describe dispersive radiation.
Thus infinite-dimensional Hamiltonian integrability is more than an infinite list of formulas: one wants sufficiently complete commuting invariants and a reconstruction mechanism that solves the evolution. Boundary conditions and the function space are essential. A formal hierarchy need not converge, and an infinite family of conserved quantities does not automatically give a compact infinite-dimensional torus or an unrestricted analogue of the Arnold-Liouville theorem.
For the Arnold-Liouville theorem, work on a symplectic manifold of dimension . Let be smooth functions with pairwise vanishing Poisson brackets, and suppose
on a connected component of a common level. If is compact, then is a -dimensional torus. Its commuting Hamiltonian vector fields generate translations, and the Hamiltonian motion on it is linear in angular coordinates. Compactness ensures completeness of these restricted vector fields.
Moreover a neighbourhood of admits action-angle variables , with each angle defined modulo , for which
One compatible symplectic form convention is . The equations become
The resulting motion is periodic when the frequencies are commensurable and otherwise quasiperiodic on a subtorus. This is Liouville integrability with independent first integrals in involution. Compactness and regularity cannot be discarded from the torus conclusion. On a general Poisson manifold, apply this theorem on a regular symplectic leaf of dimension ; the ambient dimension alone does not specify the required number of integrals.
A Poisson structure is a real bilinear operation on smooth functions on ,
which is antisymmetric, obeys the Jacobi identity, and is a derivation in each argument. Explicitly,
Antisymmetry supplies the corresponding Leibniz rule in the first argument. Equivalently it is a smooth Poisson bivector with and for the Schouten-Nijenhuis bracket. In local coordinates,
The last equation is the coordinate Jacobi identity. Nondegeneracy is not part of the definition: a Poisson structure may have Casimir functions and symplectic leaves of different dimensions.
A Hamiltonian system consists of such a Poisson manifold, a Hamiltonian , and the flow of its Hamiltonian vector field. Choose the convention
For an observable with no explicit time dependence, . In particular is conserved because . For the canonical Poisson bracket, this convention gives and .
Let be the local flow of a vector field . The Lie derivative of a differential form is . We prove Cartan's magic formula
Both sides are degree-zero derivations of an algebra on the exterior algebra of differential forms. They agree on a function , since . They also agree on : pullback commutes with the exterior derivative, so , while . Locally every differential form is a sum of products of functions and coordinate differentials, proving the identity in every degree.
For a compactly supported Hamiltonian vector field , take the convention . Since , Cartan's magic formula gives , so its complete flow of a vector field consists of symplectomorphisms. Given and , a bump function lets us choose a compactly supported with , and hence . Choose such fields for a basis of . Their successive small-time flows give a map with invertible derivative at the origin. The inverse function theorem makes the orbit of open. Every orbit is open; because is connected, there is only one orbit. Thus the compactly supported symplectomorphisms act transitively on points, by Hamiltonian transitivity on a connected symplectic manifold.
On the unit sphere, the standard symplectic area is . The equator has complementary disks of areas , whereas the latitude at height has complementary disks of areas : the cap above height has area . A symplectomorphism must preserve the unordered pair of complementary areas. Therefore no such symplectomorphism exists, by complementary areas obstruct symplectic equivalence of separating curves.
Figure 1.
Complementary sphere areas distinguish the equator from the latitude at height one half
. Details.
A Poisson manifold is a smooth manifold with a bilinear bracket on smooth functions that is antisymmetric, obeys the Leibniz rule and satisfies the Jacobi identity. Equivalently, a Poisson tensor gives . Its rank need not be constant or maximal. Here define Hamiltonian evolution by , agreeing with the canonical bracket .
A smooth Lie group action sends each along its orbit , with stabilizer . If the action is free and proper, the orbit space is a smooth quotient manifold and the projection is a submersion. Without these hypotheses the quotient can have singular orbit-type strata, or even fail to be Hausdorff. For an action preserving the Poisson bracket, invariant functions form a Poisson subalgebra. On a smooth quotient , their identification with smooth quotient functions defines
Thus is a Poisson map. The quotient is generally Poisson, not necessarily symplectic: different reduced momentum sectors can be different leaves. An arbitrary smooth group action alone does not guarantee this bracket descent.
For a Lie group , conjugation differentiates at the identity to the Adjoint representation of a Lie group, . Its infinitesimal version is . The coadjoint representation on the dual space is defined by
The inverse in the first formula makes this a left action. These definitions distinguish the representation on infinitesimal generators from its dual action on momenta.
There is a natural positive Lie-Poisson bracket on :
The differentials lie in . In a basis with , linear coordinates satisfy . The bracket extends by the chain rule and Leibniz rule to smooth functions. Its coordinate Jacobi condition reduces precisely to the Jacobi identity for , proving that it is Poisson. Reversing its overall sign also gives a Poisson bracket and is useful for body-frame conventions below.
On a general Poisson manifold, the vectors span a distribution. The Jacobi identity closes this family under commutators, and its orbits under Hamiltonian flows form the symplectic foliation. On each leaf the induced two-form satisfies
It is well-defined after quotienting out differential covectors giving zero Hamiltonian vector field, is nondegenerate on the leaf, and is closed by the Jacobi identity. Leaf dimensions can vary, so ordinary constant-rank foliation terminology must be qualified. A Hamiltonian trajectory remains in one leaf; a Casimir function of a Poisson manifold is constant along all such trajectories, but its level set can contain more than one leaf.
For , under the convention above. Hence the connected coadjoint orbits are exactly its symplectic leaves for connected ; for disconnected , take connected orbit components. The orbit two-form is the Kirillov–Kostant–Souriau symplectic form:
If a generator is in the stabilizer, its pairing with every bracket vanishes, proving independence of the choice of tangent generator. Conversely, vanishing pairing with all tangent generators puts it in that stabilizer, proving nondegeneracy. The cyclic derivative relation giving is the Lie algebra Jacobi identity. This explains the symplectic structure of the orbit rather than just naming it.
Identify the SO(3) Lie algebra with by the hat map . Its Lie bracket becomes the vector cross product, and the invariant Euclidean pairing identifies the dual with angular-momentum vectors . The coadjoint action is ordinary rotation, with infinitesimal action . Therefore its nonzero orbits are spheres ; the origin is a zero-dimensional leaf. In these coordinates,
is a Casimir function of a Poisson manifold, since its gradient is parallel to . For tangent vectors to a nonzero sphere, the positive orbit form is
Its area integral with the corresponding orientation is , and it reverses sign with the negative bracket.
For a torque-free rigid body, choose body angular momentum and principal moments . Reduction of by spatial rotations gives the body-frame negative Lie-Poisson bracket and Hamiltonian
Keeping the sign convention explicit is essential: using the positive bracket with the same body identification would reverse the Euler evolution. The negative bracket gives
with cyclic expressions for the other two components. These are the Euler equations for a torque-free rigid body. The Hamiltonian and are conserved because and . Trajectories therefore lie on intersections of energy ellipsoids with momentum spheres, the latter being the symplectic leaves.
The body's orientation is reconstructed from . Its spatial momentum is constant, since . Thus the body momentum need not be constant even though the spatial conserved momentum is. Poisson reduction retains the dynamics and its momentum leaves while eliminating orientation variables; the unreduced motion is recovered by reconstruction.
A Poisson manifold is a smooth manifold with a smooth antisymmetric bivector whose function bracket satisfies the Jacobi identity. The bracket is automatically a derivation in each argument. A symplectic manifold has a nondegenerate differential two-form satisfying , that is, a closed differential form; nondegeneracy forces its dimension to be even. It determines a nondegenerate Poisson structure. We use matrix convention , so that corresponds to .
Examples of genuinely nonsymplectic Poisson geometries include the zero bracket on and the Lie-Poisson bracket on . Their three-dimensional underlying manifold cannot carry a nondegenerate two-form. In the latter case the Poisson rank is two away from the origin and zero at the origin, with spheres and the origin as symplectic leaves. Even in even dimension a given Poisson structure need not come from a symplectic form: on satisfies Jacobi but vanishes along . The statement concerns this degenerate structure, not a claim that admits no other symplectic structure.
For any candidate bivector, applying the Jacobi identity to coordinate functions gives the necessary condition
It is sufficient as well: expanding and its cyclic companions cancels all terms with second derivatives by antisymmetry of . What remains is . This is the coordinate Jacobi condition for a Poisson bivector.
For a symplectic form, differentiate to obtain . Substituting this into the cyclic expression gives
because . Thus the inverse symplectic structure always satisfies the Jacobi identity. Conversely, for a nondegenerate Poisson structure, multiplying by three inverse matrices proves closure of its associated two-form.
In momentum space, choose Hamiltonian and the constant Poisson bivector
Its Poisson bracket is . The Hamiltonian vector field therefore gives
exactly the prescribed motion. The sign here uses the signed charge as printed; an electron's physical charge may be negative. Since the magnetic field is uniform, every derivative of vanishes, so every term in is zero. Jacobi holds independently of the dispersion function . This is the momentum-space Poisson structure for a uniform magnetic field.
For this bivector has rank two and is a Casimir function of a Poisson manifold: for every . Its symplectic leaves are the planes . For axes with , the leaf form is in our inverse-sign convention. Also , so trajectories on a Fermi surface lie on its intersections with these planes, typically curves. The energy surface is invariant for this Hamiltonian, but need not be a Poisson submanifold; the bracket has been defined on the whole momentum space. If , the Poisson structure and motion vanish.
Use the standard symplectic form . A canonical transformation is a diffeomorphism preserving this symplectic form:
Thus, writing , the defining identity is . For a local canonical transformation, require this on its open domain. In particular preservation of the symplectic form, rather than just of phase-space volume, is the condition in dimensions greater than two.
Throughout these solutions choose the Hamiltonian vector field convention . It gives , and agrees with the positive coordinate Poisson bracket used below. The opposite convention for Hamiltonian vector fields changes signs in the Lie bracket of vector fields identity but none of the commuting or integrability conclusions.
The Hamiltonian perturbation preserving one regular level is explicit:
Linearity of the Hamiltonian vector field in the differential of a smooth map gives
It vanishes on . At a point of , its contraction with the symplectic form is
Since the differentials are independent there, this vanishes exactly when . Thus on every nonempty nonzero regular fibre the two Hamiltonian vector fields differ at every point, not merely as functions somewhere:
Mutual Poisson commutation of the is unnecessary; the given first-integral property does not by itself make the perturbed flow preserve every common level, nor is that requested.
There is a genuine missing nonemptiness hypothesis in the literal statement. Independent differentials on an empty set is a vacuous condition, and any two vector-field restrictions to an empty set are equal. For example, on let , , and . Every nonempty , , is regular, while for . In particular, the restrictions at can never be unequal for any . Therefore the printed universal inequality requires either all the compared fibres to be nonempty, or the pointwise formulation displayed above. The explicit fully proves either intended qualification.
A function is an integral of motion of when it is constant along every trajectory of the Hamiltonian flow. Infinitesimally,
The antisymmetry of a Lie bracket of the Poisson bracket gives . Hence is also an integral of motion of .
For the commuting assertion, , because is closed. The contraction identity for a Lie bracket of vector fields then gives
Since the symplectic form is a nondegenerate bilinear form at every point, the Hamiltonian vector fields commute:
With the chosen convention the general identity is . Equivalently, it follows by applying the Jacobi identity for the Poisson bracket to an arbitrary test function. Local flows commute whenever both compositions are defined; no global completeness assumption is needed.