Lagrangian subbundle 2026-10-14
A rank- vector subbundle of a rank- symplectic vector bundle is Lagrangian when each fibre is a Lagrangian subspace. If it exists, a compatible almost complex structure supplies a complementary Lagrangian subbundle by applying . Existence is a global condition: the area-oriented tangent bundle of the two-sphere has no real line subbundle, by triviality of real line bundles over the sphere and the Hairy ball theorem.
False. Give a fibrewise area form. This is a rank-two symplectic vector bundle. A Lagrangian subbundle would be a real line subbundle . Real line bundles are classified by their first Stiefel–Whitney class in ; since this group vanishes for , would be trivial. A nonzero section of would therefore be a nowhere-vanishing tangent vector field on . The Hairy ball theorem rules this out: every continuous tangent vector field on an even-dimensional sphere has a zero. Hence does not even have one Lagrangian subbundle, let alone a splitting into two. Fibrewise existence of Lagrangian subspaces does not guarantee a globally continuous choice.