Symplectic reduction (${\mu }^{-1}(c)/G$)

For a Hamiltonian group action, a regular value level preserved by a free proper group action has a smooth quotient. The restricted symplectic form descends to a symplectic form on that quotient when the kernel is exactly the orbit directions; this is symplectic reduction.

At a regular free circle group level of a moment map, the inverse image of a Lagrangian submanifold of the reduced space is a Lagrangian submanifold of the original space. Its restricted symplectic form is the pullback of the reduced form and hence vanishes. Its dimension is one more than that of the reduced Lagrangian, exactly half the ambient dimension. It is a circle bundle over the original Lagrangian.

For a planar cotangent bundle, rotation has moment map $\ell =x{p}_y-y{p}_x$. At $\ell \ne 0$ its level is regular and the circle action is free. Polar canonical coordinates give $\omega =dr\wedge d{p}_r+d\theta \wedge d\ell$. Fixing $\ell$ and quotienting $\theta$ leaves $T^{\ast }{\mathbb{R}}_{>0}$ with the displayed form. The unit-mass free Hamiltonian becomes $p_r^2/2+{\ell }^2/(2r^2)$.

For $H={\sum }_j(q_j^2+p_j^2)/2$ and $E>0$, the oscillator flow is a free circle action on the sphere of radius $\sqrt{2E}$. Its quotient is Complex projective space. For two modes, the reduced form in $w=z_2/z_1$ is $iEdw\wedge d\bar{w}/(1+|w{|}^2{)}^2$, of total area $2\pi E$. Reduction at zero energy is singular instead of a smooth quotient of the asserted dimension.

For a Hamiltonian group action, let $c$ be a regular value of the moment map fixed by the coadjoint action, and assume the action on ${\mu }^{-1}(c)$ is free and proper. The quotient is a symplectic manifold of dimension $\dim M-2\dim G$. Its unique reduced symplectic form is characterized by ${\pi }^{\ast }{\omega }_c={\iota }^{\ast }\omega$, where $\iota$ includes the level set and $\pi$ is the quotient projection. The kernel of the restricted two-form consists precisely of the orbit directions. More general noncentral levels use their stabilizer group; the stated central-level version suffices for circle group reduction.