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 Poisson manifold is a smooth manifold with an antisymmetric contravariant tensor field such that the bracket
satisfies the Jacobi identity. Bilinearity, antisymmetry and the Leibniz rule follow directly from this formula. The Poisson bivector is allowed to be degenerate.
Apply the Jacobi identity to coordinate functions . Necessity gives the coordinate Jacobi condition for a Poisson bivector:
For sufficiency, expand . The terms differentiating are . All terms containing second derivatives cancel. For example, those containing have coefficient , which is antisymmetric under after contraction with , whereas is symmetric. The same argument handles the second derivatives of and . Thus the displayed condition is both necessary and sufficient.
A symplectic manifold has a smooth nondegenerate closed differential form of degree two. Write and choose the explicit inverse convention . This defines a smooth antisymmetric bivector. Differentiating the inverse matrix gives
Substitution into the Jacobi coefficient, followed by relabeling summed indices, gives
since the parentheses are the components of . Hence every symplectic manifold carries a Poisson structure. The opposite overall convention for the inverse bracket gives the same conclusion. Nondegeneracy and closure together are crucial; an arbitrary invertible antisymmetric tensor need not satisfy the Jacobi identity.
For a finite-dimensional Lie algebra , its dual space carries the Lie-Poisson bracket
where are identified with elements of . If and , this reads . The Jacobi coefficient is
which vanishes by the Lie algebra Jacobi identity.
In particular, the dual of is with the rotational Lie-Poisson structure on R3,
The Poisson bivector has rank two away from the origin and rank zero at the origin. The function is a Casimir function, since its bracket with every function vanishes. The centred spheres are its two-dimensional symplectic leaves, and the origin is a point leaf. This is a Poisson manifold but not a symplectic manifold: its bivector is not invertible, and an odd-dimensional manifold cannot have a nondegenerate alternating bilinear form.
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 .
A symplectic manifold is a smooth manifold with a closed, nondegenerate two-form . Nondegeneracy forces . Examples are with , an oriented surface with a nowhere-zero area form, and every cotangent bundle with its canonical form.
A Poisson manifold has a bivector such that is an antisymmetric bilinear Poisson bracket, is a derivation in each argument, and satisfies the Jacobi identity. Its rank need not be full or constant. The zero bivector gives a Poisson manifold on any smooth manifold, including an odd-dimensional or nonorientable one. A nonzero example on is the Lie-Poisson bracket : it has rank two off the origin and rank zero at the origin, so it does not arise from a symplectic form on the whole three-dimensional space. Even on , is Poisson, since its Jacobi condition is a three-vector and hence vanishes, but its degeneracy on prevents it from being the inverse of a global symplectic form. A manifold carrying a degenerate Poisson structure might separately admit some other symplectic structure; these are distinct claims.
At each point of a symplectic manifold, linear nondegeneracy gives a basis with . Its top wedge product of differential forms is
Thus is a global nowhere-zero volume form and selects a consistent symplectic orientation. This proves every symplectic manifold is orientable without choosing a global frame.
Let and let a point of the cotangent bundle be with . Define the canonical Liouville one-form intrinsically by . In local coordinates it is , so
This definition is global, by , and its coordinate matrix has invertible blocks. Hence is symplectic for every smooth , even if itself is not orientable.
The coordinate Jacobi condition for a Poisson bivector is
Necessity follows by applying the Jacobi identity to three coordinate functions. For arbitrary functions, the second-derivative terms in the Jacobiator cancel by antisymmetry of ; the terms left are exactly this coefficient multiplying , proving sufficiency.
For a symplectic form, take and . With these signs the matrix of is . Differentiation gives . The cyclic expression above consequently equals
which vanishes because . This directly proves that a symplectic manifold defines a Poisson manifold.
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.
Let be a smooth antisymmetric matrix field. It defines a Poisson bivector through
This Poisson bracket is bilinear, antisymmetric and a derivation in each argument. It defines a Poisson manifold when it also satisfies the Jacobi identity. Apply that identity in the form to the coordinate functions. Since , it gives
This is the coordinate Jacobi condition for a Poisson bivector. It is also sufficient: in the Jacobi identity for arbitrary functions the terms containing second derivatives cancel by antisymmetry, leaving . Thus the coordinate condition captures the whole obstruction.
Now suppose the Poisson bivector is nondegenerate. Write , so , and define the 2-form
An overall minus sign in identifying the symplectic form depends on the convention for Hamiltonian vector fields; it does not affect the closure argument. Differentiating the inverse matrix gives
Contract the coordinate Jacobi identity with . Antisymmetry gives , and similarly for the other terms, hence
The cyclic expression is precisely the coefficient of the exterior derivative . Therefore
Since is antisymmetric and nondegenerate, is a symplectic form. This proves the closure of the inverse of a nondegenerate Poisson bivector. The matrix entries are scalar functions; the codomain in the source's matrix description should be read as the space of antisymmetric matrices, rather than a vector-valued individual entry.
A Poisson bivector is a smooth antisymmetric contravariant two-tensor
whose bracket on smooth functions,
satisfies the Jacobi identity. Bilinearity and antisymmetry are immediate, and the product rule makes the bracket a derivation in each argument. Together these properties define a Poisson manifold. Unlike a symplectic form, the Poisson bivector need not be nondegenerate.
Apply the Jacobi identity to the coordinate functions. Since ,
Changing to and rearranging the three summands gives the printed coordinate Jacobi condition for a Poisson bivector:
This is also sufficient: expanding the Jacobiator of three arbitrary smooth functions, all terms involving second derivatives cancel in pairs by antisymmetry. The remaining coefficient of is the coordinate-function Jacobiator displayed above.
For a Lie algebra, the natural global space carrying the proposed linear bracket is its dual space . If is the chosen basis, define its linear coordinate function by . The Lie-Poisson bracket is
where are elements of . On a general manifold the same coordinate expression gives a local construction; a global one requires compatible transition rules. The use of supplies that compatibility intrinsically.
Here and . The left side of the coordinate Jacobi condition for a Poisson bivector is therefore
The final coefficient is the negative of the coefficient of in the Lie algebra identity . Thus the Lie-Poisson bracket satisfies the Jacobi identity.
It remains to find the Lie algebra structure constants for the printed rotation fields. Distinguish their original spatial coordinates from the coordinates on the dual space. Use the conventional Lie bracket of vector fields. Their component vectors are , and , respectively. For example,
Similarly,
The negative sign is essential: these are the fundamental fields of a left rotation action with the stated Lie bracket of vector fields, and consequently have the infinitesimal left-action sign convention discussed above. The first field here has component , as printed in the PDF.
The Lie-Poisson bracket on the dual space consequently has
For the evolution convention , the Hamiltonian function has derivatives . Substitution gives the quadratic rotational Lie-Poisson dynamics
These are Euler-type Hamilton's equations on a noncanonical Poisson manifold. When , and with positive principal inertias, they are the Euler equations for a torque-free rigid body in body angular-momentum coordinates. As a check, is conserved by antisymmetry of the Poisson bracket, and is a Casimir function of a Poisson manifold. Direct differentiation of in the three equations cancels the terms . The Hamiltonian flow therefore lies on both an energy level and a sphere, a symplectic leaf of this signed rotational bracket.
Poisson map 2026-10-14
A smooth map between Poisson manifolds is a Poisson map when for all smooth functions on . When a Lie group acts by Poisson automorphisms and the quotient is smooth, brackets of invariant functions descend and make the quotient projection Poisson. The quotient can be Poisson without being symplectic.
Symplectic foliation 2026-10-14
The symplectic foliation of a Poisson manifold consists of maximal connected integral manifolds of its Hamiltonian distribution. Each leaf has a nondegenerate closed two-form inverse to the restricted Poisson structure, with compatible sign conventions. Ranks can differ between leaves, making this a singular foliation. Hamiltonian flows remain within a leaf, and Casimir functions of a Poisson manifold are constant along every leaf; a Casimir level set need not be a single leaf.