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.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2003 iii Paper 17 4 a Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
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.