Group Of Area-preserving Diffeomorphisms Research Articles

PFH spectral invariants on the two-sphere and the large scale geometry of Hofer’s metric

We resolve three longstanding questions related to the large scale geometry of the group of Hamiltonian diffeomorphisms of the two-sphere, equipped with Hofer’s metric. Namely: (1) we resolve the Kapovich–Polterovich question by showing that this group is not quasi-isometric to the real line; (2) more generally, we show that the kernel of Calabi over any proper open subset is unbounded; and (3) we show that the group of area and orientation preserving homeomorphisms of the two-sphere is not a simple group. We also find, as a corollary, that the group of area-preserving diffeomorphisms of the open disc, equipped with an area form of finite area, is not perfect. Central to all of our proofs are new sequences of spectral invariants over the two-sphere, defined via periodic Floer homology.

Pointed vortex loops in ideal 2D fluids

We study a special kind of singular vorticities in ideal 2D fluids that combine features of point vortices and vortex sheets, namely pointed vortex loops. We focus on the coadjoint orbits of the area-preserving diffeomorphism group of determined by them. We show that a polarization subgroup consists of diffeomorphisms that preserve the loop as a set, thus the configuration space is the space of loops that enclose a fixed area, without information on vorticity distribution and attached points.

The Toda Flow as a Porous Medium Equation

We describe the geometry of the incompressible porous medium (IPM) equation: we prove that it is a gradient dynamical system on the group of area-preserving diffeomorphisms and has a special double-bracket form. Furthermore, we show its similarities and differences with the dispersionless Toda system. The Toda flow describes an integrable interaction of several particles on a line with an exponential potential between neighbours, while its continuous version is an integrable PDE, whose physical meaning was obscure. Here we show that this continuous Toda flow can be naturally regarded as a special IPM equation, while the key double-bracket property of Toda is shared by all equations of the IPM type, thus manifesting their gradient and non-autonomous Hamiltonian origin. Finally, we comment on Toda and IPM modifications of the QR diagonalization algorithm, as well as describe double-bracket flows in an invariant setting of general Lie groups with arbitrary inertia operators.

Conjugate point criteria on the area-preserving diffeomorphism group

This paper answers some questions about conjugate points along the geodesics corresponding to steady 2D Euler flows, posed by a paper of Drivas-Misiołek-Shi-Yoneda. We present a new sufficient criterion for the existence of conjugate points, which improves on the criterion of Misiołek. It applies in any rotational cell of a steady 2D Euler flow, and in case of rotational symmetry it captures all known conjugate points. We give a general construction of the surfaces that admit a steady fluid with given area form, velocity profile, and vorticity profile, and from this we show how to detect conjugate points in a single rotational cell of a steady flow. When the velocity profile has a local extremum, the criterion becomes particularly simple. Several examples are provided, and in an appendix we use the Misiołek criterion to give some new examples of conjugate points along Kolmogorov flows on the torus.

The Schwarz-Milnor lemma for braids and area-preserving diffeomorphisms

We prove a number of new results on the large-scale geometry of the \(L^p\)-metrics on the group of area-preserving diffeomorphisms of each orientable surface. Our proofs use in a key way the Fulton-MacPherson type compactification of the configuration space of n points on the surface due to Axelrod-Singer and Kontsevich. This allows us to apply the Schwarz-Milnor lemma to configuration spaces, a natural approach which we carry out successfully for the first time. As sample results, we prove that all right-angled Artin groups admit quasi-isometric embeddings into the group of area-preserving diffeomorphisms endowed with the \(L^p\)-metric, and that all Gambaudo-Ghys quasi-morphisms on this metric group coming from the braid group on n strands are Lipschitz. This was conjectured to hold, yet proven only for small values of n and g, where g is the genus of the surface.

Gravitational edge modes, coadjoint orbits, and hydrodynamics

The phase space of general relativity in a finite subregion is characterized by edge modes localized at the codimension-2 boundary, transforming under an infinite-dimensional group of symmetries. The quantization of this symmetry algebra is conjectured to be an important aspect of quantum gravity. As a step towards quantization, we derive a complete classification of the positive-area coadjoint orbits of this group for boundaries that are topologically a 2-sphere. This classification parallels Wigner’s famous classification of representations of the Poincaré group since both groups have the structure of a semidirect product. We find that the total area is a Casimir of the algebra, analogous to mass in the Poincaré group. A further infinite family of Casimirs can be constructed from the curvature of the normal bundle of the boundary surface. These arise as invariants of the little group, which is the group of area-preserving diffeomorphisms, and are the analogues of spin. Additionally, we show that the symmetry group of hydrodynamics appears as a reduction of the corner symmetries of general relativity. Coadjoint orbits of both groups are classified by the same set of invariants, and, in the case of the hydrodynamical group, the invariants are interpreted as the generalized enstrophies of the fluid.

The Λ-BMS4 group of dS4 and new boundary conditions for AdS4

Using the dictionary between Bondi and Fefferman–Graham gauges, we identify the analogues of the Bondi news, Bondi mass and Bondi angular momentum aspects at the boundary of generic asymptotically locally (A)dS4 spacetimes. We introduce the -BMS4 group as the residual symmetry group of the metric in Bondi gauge after boundary gauge fixing. This group consists of infinite-dimensional non-abelian supertranslations and superrotations and it reduces in the asymptotically flat limit to the extended BMS4 group. Furthermore, we present new boundary conditions for asymptotically locally AdS4 spacetimes which admit times the group of area-preserving diffeomorphisms as the asymptotic symmetry group. The boundary conditions amount to fix two components of the holographic stress-tensor while allowing two components of the boundary metric to fluctuate. They correspond to a deformation of a holographic CFT3 which is coupled to a fluctuating spatial metric of fixed area.

Bubble networks: framed discrete geometry for quantum gravity

In the context of canonical quantum gravity in 3+1 dimensions, we introduce a new notion of bubble network that represents discrete 3d space geometries. These are natural extensions of twisted geometries, which represent the geometrical data underlying loop quantum geometry and are defined as networks of SU(2) holonomies. In addition to the SU(2) representations encoding the geometrical flux, the bubble network links carry a compatible SL(2,R) representation encoding the discretized frame field which composes the flux. In contrast with twisted geometries, this extra data allows to reconstruct the frame compatible with the flux unambiguously. At the classical level this data represents a network of 3d geometrical cells glued together. The SL(2,R) data contains information about the discretized 2d metrics of the interfaces between 3d cells and SL(2,R) local transformations are understood as the group of area-preserving diffeomorphisms. We further show that the natural gluing condition with respect to this extended group structure ensures that the intrinsic 2d geometry of a boundary surface is the same from the viewpoint of the two cells sharing it. At the quantum level this gluing corresponds to a maximal entanglement along the network edges. We emphasize that the nature of this extension of twisted geometries is compatible with the general analysis of gauge theories that predicts edge mode degrees of freedom at the interface of subsystems.

The Exponential Map of the Group of Area-Preserving Diffeomorphisms of a Surface with Boundary

We prove that the Riemannian exponential map of the right-invariant L2 metric on the group of volume-preserving diffeomorphisms of a two-dimensional manifold with a nonempty boundary is a nonlinear Fredholm map of index zero.

Quasi-isometry type of the metric space derived from the kernel of the Calabi homomorphism

We prove that the set of symmetrized conjugacy classes of the kernel of the Calabi homomorphism on the group of area-preserving diffeomorphisms of the $2$-disk is not quasi-isometric to the half line.

The Lp–diameter of the group of area-preserving diffeomorphisms of S2

We show that for each $p \geq 1,$ the $L^p$-metric on the group of area-preserving diffeomorphisms of the two-sphere has infinite diameter. This solves the last open case of a conjecture of Shnirelman from 1985. Our methods extend to yield stronger results on the large-scale geometry of the corresponding metric space, completing an answer to a question of Kapovich from 2012. Our proof uses configuration spaces of points on the two-sphere, quasi-morphisms, optimally chosen braid diagrams, and, as a key element, the cross-ratio map $X_4(\mathbb{C} P^1) \to \mathcal{M}_{0,4} \cong \mathbb{C} P^1 \setminus \{\infty,0,1\}$ from the configuration space of $4$ points on $\mathbb{C} P^1$ to the moduli space of complex rational curves with $4$ marked points.

Bi-invariant metrics and quasi-morphisms on groups of Hamiltonian diffeomorphisms of surfaces

Let Σg be a closed orientable surface of genus g and let Diff 0(Σg, area ) be the identity component of the group of area-preserving diffeomorphisms of Σg. In this paper, we present the extension of Gambaudo–Ghys construction to the case of a closed hyperbolic surface Σg, i.e. we show that every nontrivial homogeneous quasi-morphism on the braid group on n strings of Σg defines a nontrivial homogeneous quasi-morphism on the group Diff 0(Σg, area ). As a consequence we give another proof of the fact that the space of homogeneous quasi-morphisms on Diff 0(Σg, area ) is infinite-dimensional. Let Ham (Σg) be the group of Hamiltonian diffeomorphisms of Σg. As an application of the above construction we construct two injective homomorphisms Zm → Ham (Σg), which are bi-Lipschitz with respect to the word metric on Zm and the autonomous and fragmentation metrics on Ham (Σg). In addition, we construct a new infinite family of Calabi quasi-morphisms on Ham (Σg).

Conjugation invariants on the group of area-preserving diffeomorphisms of the disk

Conjugation invariants on the group of area-preserving diffeomorphisms of the disk

Quasi-morphisms on the group of area-preserving diffeomorphisms of the 2-disk via braid groups

Recently Gambaudo and Ghys proved that there exist infinitely many quasi-morphisms on the group Diff Ω ∞ ( D 2 , ∂ D 2 ) \textrm {Diff}_\Omega ^\infty (D^2, \partial D^2) of area-preserving diffeomorphisms of the 2 2 -disk D 2 D^2 . For the proof, they constructed a homomorphism from the space of quasi-morphisms on the braid group to the space of quasi-morphisms on Diff Ω ∞ ( D 2 , ∂ D 2 ) \textrm {Diff}_\Omega ^\infty (D^2, \partial D^2) . In this paper, we study this homomorphism and prove its injectivity.

On the autonomous metric on the group of area-preserving diffeomorphisms of the 2–disc

Let $D^2$ be the open unit disc in the Euclidean plane and let $G:= Diff(D2; area)$ be the group of smooth compactly supported area-preserving diffeomorphisms of $D^2$. We investigate the properties of G endowed with the autonomous metric. In particular, we construct a bi-Lipschitz homomorphism $Z^k \rightarrow G$ of a finitely generated free abelian group of an arbitrary rank. We also show that the space of homogeneous quasi-morphisms vanishing on all autonomous diffeomorphisms in the above group is infinite dimensional.

Reeb graph and quasi-states on the two-dimensional torus

This note deals with quasi-states on the two-dimensional torus. Quasistates are certain quasi-linear functionals (introduced by Aarnes) on the space of continuous functions. Grubb constructed a quasi-state on the torus, which is invariant under the group of area-preserving diffeomorphisms, and which moreover vanishes on functions having support in an open disk. Knudsen asserted the uniqueness of such a quasi-state; for the sake of completeness, we provide a proof. We calculate the value of Grubb’s quasi-state on Morse functions with distinct critical values via their Reeb graphs. The resulting formula coincides with the one obtained by Py in his work on quasi-morphisms on the group of area-preserving diffeomorphisms of the torus. Included is a short introduction to the link between quasi-states and quasi-morphisms in symplectic geometry.

The fine structure of SU(2) intertwiners from U(N) representations

In this work, we study the Hilbert space space of N-valent SU(2) intertwiners with fixed total spin, which can be identified, at the classical level, with a space of convex polyhedra with N faces and fixed total boundary area. We show that this Hilbert space provides, quite remarkably, an irreducible representation of the U(N) group. This gives us therefore a precise identification of U(N) as a group of area-preserving diffeomorphisms of polyhedral spheres. We use this result to get new closed formulas for the black hole entropy in loop quantum gravity.

Spinning Hopf solitons onS3× Bbb R

We consider a field theory with target space being the two dimensional sphere S^2 and defined on the space-time S^3 x R. The Lagrangean is the square of the pull-back of the area form on S^2. It is invariant under the conformal group SO(4,2) and the infinite dimensional group of area preserving diffeomorphisms of S^2. We construct an infinite number of exact soliton solutions with non-trivial Hopf topological charges. The solutions spin with a frequency which is bounded above by a quantity proportional to the inverse of the radius of S^3. The construction of the solutions is made possible by an ansatz which explores the conformal symmetry and a U(1) subgroup of the area preserving diffeomorphism group.

Integrability from an Abelian subgroup of the diffeomorphisms group

It has been known for some time that for a large class of nonlinear field theories in Minkowski space with two-dimensional target space the complex eikonal equation defines integrable submodels with infinitely many conservation laws. These conservation laws are related to the area-preserving diffeomorphisms on target space. Here we demonstrate that for all these theories there exists, in fact, a weaker integrability condition which again defines submodels with infinitely many conservation laws. These conservation laws will be related to an Abelian subgroup of the group of area-preserving diffeomorphisms. As this weaker integrability condition is much easier to fulfill, it should be useful in the study of those nonlinear field theories.

Quantum kinematics of bosonic vortex loops

In the framework of geometric quantization, filaments of vorticity in a two-dimensional, ideal incompressible superfluid belong to certain coadjoint orbits of the group of area-preserving diffeomorphisms. The Poisson structure for such vortex strings is analyzed in detail. While the Lie algebra associated with area-preserving diffeomorphisms is noncanonical, we can nevertheless find canonical coordinates and their conjugate momenta that describe these systems. We then introduce a Fock-like space of quantum states for the simplest case of bosonic vortex loops, with natural, nonlocal creation and annihilation operators for the quantized vortex filaments.