Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2018 / iii / Paper 140 / 3

Take the usual convention that the smooth isotopy starts at ${\rho }_0=\mathrm{id}$. The exterior derivative commutes with a pullback of a differential form, soConsequentlyThe right-hand condition says precisely that ${\rho }_t$ is a symplectic isotopy.

Here an exact symplectic manifold is necessarily noncompact in positive dimension: if $\dim M=2n$ and $\omega =-d\lambda$, then ${\omega }^n=-d(\lambda \wedge {\omega }^{n-1})$, contradicting the positive symplectic volume and the Generalized Stokes theorem on a compact smooth manifold without boundary. Thus the paper's introductory word “closed” must here be read as “without boundary”, as its parenthesis suggests, rather than as including compactness.

Use the Hamiltonian vector field convention ${\iota }_{X_t}\omega =d{H}_t$, which is forced by the sign of the formula in this part. This is the opposite of the default sign in the linked general article. Since $d\lambda =-\omega$, Cartan's magic formula givesDifferentiate the pullback of a differential form along the smooth isotopy and integrate from $0$ to $t$:Thus the required exact differential form has the explicit primitive

Differentiating the assumed primitive identity and using Cartan's magic formula givesApply the pullback of a differential form by ${\rho }_t^{-1}$ and rearrange:This smooth family of Hamiltonian functions proves that ${\rho }_t$ is a Hamiltonian isotopy in the convention of part (b).

To connect this with the preceding assertion that every ${\rho }_t^{\ast }\lambda -\lambda$ is an exact differential form, the smooth choice of primitives causes no additional obstruction. Fix $p_0\in M$ and normalize $F_t(p_0)=0$. Define $F_t(p)$ by the line integral of ${\rho }_t^{\ast }\lambda -\lambda$ from $p_0$ to $p$. The fundamental theorem for line integrals makes this independent of the path. Near any $p$, use one fixed path to a nearby chart center followed by coordinate line segments; this expression is smooth jointly in $t,p$. Thus these normalized primitives form the required smooth family.