Analysis of an old variational principal in classical mechanics has established global periodic phenomena in Hamiltonian systems. One of the links is a class of sympletic invariants, called sympletic capacities, and these invariants are the main theme of this book. Topics covered include basic sympletic geometry, sympletic capacities and rigidity, sympletic fixed point theory, and a survey on Floer homology and sympletic homology.

This book originated from an introductory lecture course on dynamical systems given by the author for advanced students in mathematics and physics at ETH Zurich. The first part centers around unstable and chaotic phenomena caused by the occurrence of homoclinic points. The existence of homoclinic points complicates the orbit structure considerably and gives rise to invariant hyperbolic sets nearby. The orbit structure in such sets is analyzed by means of the shadowing lemma, whose proof is based on the contraction principle. This lemma is also used to prove S. Smale's theorem about the embedding of Bernoulli systems near homoclinic orbits. The chaotic behavior is illustrated in the simple mechanical model of a periodically perturbed mathematical pendulum. The second part of the book is devoted to Hamiltonian systems. The Hamiltonian formalism is developed in the elegant language of the exterior calculus. The theorem of V. Arnold and R. Jost shows that the solutions of Hamiltonian systems which possess sufficiently many integrals of motion can be written down explicitly and for all times. The existence proofs of global periodic orbits of Hamiltonian systems on symplectic manifolds are based on a variational principle for the old action functional of classical mechanics. The necessary tools from variational calculus are developed. There is an intimate relation between the periodic orbits of Hamiltonian systems and a class of symplectic invariants called symplectic capacities. From these symplectic invariants one derives surprising symplectic rigidity phenomena. This allows a first glimpse of the fast developing new field of symplectic topology.

This is both a textbook and a monograph. It is partially based on a two-semester course, held by the author for third-year students in physics and mathematics at the University of Salerno, on analytical mechanics, differential geometry, symplectic manifolds and integrable systems. As a textbook, it provides a systematic and self-consistent formulation of Hamiltonian dynamics both in a rigorous coordinate language and in the modern language of differential geometry. It also presents powerful mathematical methods of theoretical physics, especially in gauge theories and general relativity. As a monograph, the book deals with the advanced research topic of completely integrable dynamics, with both finitely and infinitely many degrees of freedom, including geometrical structures of solitonic wave equations. Contents: Analytical Mechanics: The Lagrangian Coordinates; Hamiltonian Systems; Transformation Theory; The Integration Methods; Basic Ideas of Differential Geometry: Manifolds and Tangent Spaces; Differential Forms; Integration Theory; Lie Groups and Lie Algebras; Geometry and Physics: Symplectic Manifolds and Hamiltonian Systems; The Orbits Method; Classical Electrodynamics; Integrable Field Theories: KdV Equation; General Structures; Meaning and Existence of Recursion Operators; Miscellanea; Integrability of Fermionic Dynamics. Readership: Physicists and mathematicians.

Published in two volumes, this is the first book to provide a thorough and systematic explanation of symplectic topology, and the analytical details and techniques used in applying the machinery arising from Floer theory as a whole. Volume 2 provides a comprehensive introduction to both Hamiltonian Floer theory and Lagrangian Floer theory, including many examples of their applications to various problems in symplectic topology. The first volume covered the basic materials of Hamiltonian dynamics and symplectic geometry and the analytic foundations of Gromov's pseudoholomorphic curve theory. Symplectic Topology and Floer Homology is a comprehensive resource suitable for experts and newcomers alike.

The action of a compact Lie group, G, on a compact sympletic manifold gives rise to some remarkable combinatorial invariants. The simplest and most interesting of these is the moment polytopes, a convex polyhedron which sits inside the dual of the Lie algebra of G. One of the main goals of this monograph is to describe what kinds of geometric information are encoded in this polytope. This book is addressed to researchers and can be used as a semester text.

* The invited papers in this volume are written in honor of Alan Weinstein, one of the world’s foremost geometers * Contributions cover a broad range of topics in symplectic and differential geometry, Lie theory, mechanics, and related fields * Intended for graduate students and working mathematicians, this text is a distillation of prominent research and an indication of future trends in geometry, mechanics, and mathematical physics

This memoir gives an introduction to Hamiltonian dynamical systems on symplectic manifolds, including definitions of Hamiltonian vector fields, Poisson brackets, integrals of motion, complete integrability, and ergodicity. A particularly complete treatment of action-angle coordinates is given. Historical background into the question of ergodicity and integrability in Hamiltonian systems is also given.