Lectures On Symplectic Geometry And Geometric Quantization

These notes are based on a course entitled ``Symplectic Geometry and Geometric Quantization'' taught by Alan Weinstein at the University of California, Berkeley (fall 1992) and at the Centre Emile Borel (spring 1994). The only prerequisite for the course needed is a knowledge of the basic notions from the theory of differentiable manifolds (differential forms, vector fields, transversality, etc.). The aim is to give students an introduction to the ideas of microlocal analysis and the related symplectic geometry, with an emphasis on the role these ideas play in formalizing the transition between the mathematics of classical dynamics (hamiltonian flows on symplectic manifolds) and quantum mechanics (unitary flows on Hilbert spaces). These notes are meant to function as a guide to the literature. The authors refer to other sources for many details that are omitted and can be bypassed on a first reading.

The goal of these notes is to provide a fast introduction to symplectic geometry for graduate students with some knowledge of differential geometry, de Rham theory and classical Lie groups. This text addresses symplectomorphisms, local forms, contact manifolds, compatible almost complex structures, Kaehler manifolds, hamiltonian mechanics, moment maps, symplectic reduction and symplectic toric manifolds. It contains guided problems, called homework, designed to complement the exposition or extend the reader's understanding. There are by now excellent references on symplectic geometry, a subset of which is in the bibliography of this book. However, the most efficient introduction to a subject is often a short elementary treatment, and these notes attempt to serve that purpose. This text provides a taste of areas of current research and will prepare the reader to explore recent papers and extensive books on symplectic geometry where the pace is much faster. For this reprint numerous corrections and clarifications have been made, and the layout has been improved.

Features notes with sections containing a description of some of the basic constructions and results on symplectic manifolds and lagrangian submanifolds. This title also includes sections dealing with various aspects of the quantization problem, as wel as those giving a feedback of ideas from quantization theory into symplectic geometry itslef.

This book is addressed to graduate students and researchers in the fields of mathematics and physics who are interested in mathematical and theoretical physics, differential geometry, mechanics, quantization theories and quantum physics, quantum groups etc., and who are familiar with differentiable and symplectic manifolds. The aim of the book is to provide the reader with a monograph that enables him to study systematically basic and advanced material on the recently developed theory of Poisson manifolds, and that also offers ready access to bibliographical references for the continuation of his study. Until now, most of this material was dispersed in research papers published in many journals and languages. The main subjects treated are the Schouten-Nijenhuis bracket; the generalized Frobenius theorem; the basics of Poisson manifolds; Poisson calculus and cohomology; quantization; Poisson morphisms and reduction; realizations of Poisson manifolds by symplectic manifolds and by symplectic groupoids and Poisson-Lie groups. The book unifies terminology and notation. It also reports on some original developments stemming from the author's work, including new results on Poisson cohomology and geometric quantization, cofoliations and biinvariant Poisson structures on Lie groups.

Symplectic geometry and the theory of Fourier integral operators are modern manifestations of themes that have occupied a central position in mathematical thought for the past three hundred years--the relations between the wave and the corpuscular theories of light. The purpose of this book is to develop these themes, and present some of the recent advances, using the language of differential geometry as a unifying influence.

As all participants know by now, the Bialowieza Summer Workshop has acquired a life of its own. The charming venue of the meetings, the informal atmosphere, the enthusiasm of the participants and the intensity of the scientific interaction have all conspired to make these meetings wonderful learning experiences. The XIIth Workshop (held from July 1 - 7, 1993) was once again a topical meeting within the general area of Differential Geometric Methods in Physics, focusing specifically on Quantization and Infinite-dimensional Systems. Altogether, about fifty participants attended the workshop. As before, the aim of the workshop was to have a small number of in-depth lectures on the main theme and a somewhat larger number of short presentations on related areas, while leaving enough free time for private discussions and exchange of ideas. Topics treated in the workshop included field theory, geometric quantization and symplectic geometry, coherent states methods, holomorphic representation theory, Poisson structures, non-commutative geometry, supersymmetry and quantum groups. The editors have the pleasant task of first thanking all the local organizers, in particular Dr. K. Gilewicz, for their painstaking efforts in ensuring the smooth running of the meeting and for organizing a delightful array of social events. Secondly, they would like to record their indebtedness to all the people who have contributed to this volume and to the redoubtable Ms. Cindy Parkinson without whose patient typesetting and editing skills the volume could hardly have seen the light of the day.

The papers, some of which are in English, the rest in French, in this volume are based on lectures given during the meeting of the Seminare Sud Rhodanien de Geometrie (SSRG) organized at the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute in 1989. The SSRG was established in 1982 by geometers and mathematical physicists with the aim of developing and coordinating research in symplectic geometry and its applications to analysis and mathematical physics. Among the subjects discussed at the meeting, a special role was given to the theory of symplectic groupoids, the subject of fruitful collaboration involving geometers from Berkeley, Lyon, and Montpellier.