The Arnold conjecture, named after mathematician Vladimir Arnold, is a mathematical conjecture in the field of symplectic geometry, a branch of differential geometry. [1]
Let be a closed (compact without boundary) symplectic manifold. For any smooth function , the symplectic form induces a Hamiltonian vector field on defined by the formula
The function is called a Hamiltonian function.
Suppose there is a smooth 1-parameter family of Hamiltonian functions , . This family induces a 1-parameter family of Hamiltonian vector fields on . The family of vector fields integrates to a 1-parameter family of diffeomorphisms . Each individual is a called a Hamiltonian diffeomorphism of .
The strong Arnold conjecture states that the number of fixed points of a Hamiltonian diffeomorphism of is greater than or equal to the number of critical points of a smooth function on . [2] [3]
Let be a closed symplectic manifold. A Hamiltonian diffeomorphism is called nondegenerate if its graph intersects the diagonal of transversely. For nondegenerate Hamiltonian diffeomorphisms, one variant of the Arnold conjecture says that the number of fixed points is at least equal to the minimal number of critical points of a Morse function on , called the Morse number of .
In view of the Morse inequality, the Morse number is greater than or equal to the sum of Betti numbers over a field , namely . The weak Arnold conjecture says that
The Arnold–Givental conjecture, named after Vladimir Arnold and Alexander Givental, gives a lower bound on the number of intersection points of two Lagrangian submanifolds L and in terms of the Betti numbers of , given that intersects L transversally and is Hamiltonian isotopic to L.
Let be a compact -dimensional symplectic manifold, let be a compact Lagrangian submanifold of , and let be an anti-symplectic involution, that is, a diffeomorphism such that and , whose fixed point set is .
Let , be a smooth family of Hamiltonian functions on . This family generates a 1-parameter family of diffeomorphisms by flowing along the Hamiltonian vector field associated to . The Arnold–Givental conjecture states that if intersects transversely with , then
. [4]
The Arnold–Givental conjecture has been proved for several special cases.
The Kolmogorov–Arnold–Moser (KAM) theorem is a result in dynamical systems about the persistence of quasiperiodic motions under small perturbations. The theorem partly resolves the small-divisor problem that arises in the perturbation theory of classical mechanics.
In differential geometry, a subject of mathematics, a symplectic manifold is a smooth manifold, , equipped with a closed nondegenerate differential 2-form , called the symplectic form. The study of symplectic manifolds is called symplectic geometry or symplectic topology. Symplectic manifolds arise naturally in abstract formulations of classical mechanics and analytical mechanics as the cotangent bundles of manifolds. For example, in the Hamiltonian formulation of classical mechanics, which provides one of the major motivations for the field, the set of all possible configurations of a system is modeled as a manifold, and this manifold's cotangent bundle describes the phase space of the system.
In physics, Hamiltonian mechanics is a reformulation of Lagrangian mechanics that emerged in 1833. Introduced by Sir William Rowan Hamilton, Hamiltonian mechanics replaces (generalized) velocities used in Lagrangian mechanics with (generalized) momenta. Both theories provide interpretations of classical mechanics and describe the same physical phenomena.
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In mathematics, a symplectomorphism or symplectic map is an isomorphism in the category of symplectic manifolds. In classical mechanics, a symplectomorphism represents a transformation of phase space that is volume-preserving and preserves the symplectic structure of phase space, and is called a canonical transformation.
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