On the Lagrangian Hofer geometry in symplectically aspherical manifolds 2 1 Frol Zapolsky 0 2 January 4, 2012 n a J 2 Abstract WeusespectralinvariantsinLagrangianFloertheoryinordertoshowthatthereexist ] G isometricembeddingsofnormedlinearspaces(finiteorinfinitedimensional,dependingon S thecase) intothespace of Hamiltonian deformations of certain Lagrangian submanifolds in tame symplectically aspherical manifolds. In addition to providing a new class of . h examplesinwhichtheLagrangian Hofermetriccanbecomputedexplicitly,werefineand t a generalize some known results about it. m [ 1 Introduction and results 1 v Consider the following definition. Let (W,ω) be a symplectic manifold and let L ⊂ W 4 be a closed connected Lagrangian submanifold. Let L(L) be the space of all Lagrangian 0 submanifolds of W Hamiltonian isotopic to L. For L′,L′′ ∈L we define 5 0 1 . ′ ′′ ′ ′′ 1 ρ(L,L )=inf oscHtdt φH(L)=L , 0 (cid:26)Z0 (cid:12) (cid:27) (cid:12) 2 (cid:12) where H is a compactly supported time-dependent Hamiltonian on W and φ is the time-1 1 t H : map of its flow. Chekanov [2] showed that in case W is tame,1) this quantity is a metric on v L(L). i X Before stating our main result, we define the class of examples we deal with in this paper. r a Definition 1.1. Let (W,ω) be a symplectic manifold. A closed connected Lagrangian sub- manifold L ⊂ W is called relatively symplectically aspherical if ω| = µ| = 0, π2(W,L) π2(W,L) whereµistheMaslovindex. Apair(L,L′)ofclosedconnectedLagrangiansubmanifoldsofW is calledweaklyexactiffor anysmoothu: S1×[0,1]→W withu(S1×0)⊂L, u(S1×1)⊂L′ we have u∗ω =0. R Remark1.2. NotethatweakexactnessofapairofLagrangiansdoesnotincludearequirement on Maslov indices. Also note that if L⊂ W is relatively symplectically aspherical, then W is necessarily symplectically aspherical in the sense of [10], that is ω| =c | =0. π2(W) 1 π2(W) The main result of this paper is the following. 1)The tameness condition is needed for the compactness of spaces of holomorphic curves. Ibid., Chekanov givesanexampleofLagrangiansubmanifoldinanon-tamesymplecticmanifoldforwhichρisdegenerate. 1 Theorem 1.3. Assume that (W,ω) is tame and L,L ,...,L are relatively symplectically 0 k aspherical Lagrangian submanifolds, such that each pair (L,L ) is weakly exact, and such that j L intersects each Lj transversely at a single point, and Lj∩Lj′ =∅ for j 6=j′. Then there is an isometric embedding (Rk,osc )→(L(L),ρ). 0 Here osc is anormonRk obtainedasthe restrictionto Rk =0⊕Rk ⊂Rk+1 ofthe oscillation 0 osc: Rk+1 →[0,∞) defined by osc(τ0,...,τk)=maxj,j′(τj −τj′). Example1.4. Examplesofsuchmanifoldsareprovidedbytheplumbingconstruction. Name- ly, let L,L ,...,L be closed connected manifolds and consider their plumbing W where the 0 k incidence graph is given by the tree with L as the root and L ,...,L as the leaves. 0 k Remark 1.5. The novelty of this result is threefold. First, as mentioned in [11], in case W =T∗Q,whereQisclosedandconnected,thereisanisometricembeddingof(C∞(Q)/R,osc) into L(O ) where O ⊂ T∗Q is the zero section. However, the whole cotangent bundle is Q Q needed even in order to show that L(O ) has infinite diameter. In contrast, in our result the Q manifold W may be a small neighborhood of the union L∪ L , in particular, it may have j j finite volume or symplectic capacities. Intuitively, in the coStangent bundle, the zero section can be “moved” in different directions inside the space L(O ) along the various cotangent Q fibers. In our situation L is “moved” in different direction along the L . Next, as remarked j in [4], sometimes one may pass to a covering space of the symplectic manifold and use the energy-capacity inequality to deduce results about the Hofer metric. In our situation W may well be simply connected, so this method will not apply. Thirdly, in [11] Usher constructed quasi-isometric embeddings of normed linear spaces into L. Altough in certain cituations his embeddings are isometric, our theorem covers a new class of examples of such embeddings, in particular since W may be non-compact. The next result covers some known cases, and also provides a new class of examples. Theorem 1.6. Let L,L′ be relatively symplectically aspherical Lagrangian submanifolds in W, such that the pair (L,L′) is weakly exact, and such that L intersects L′ transversely at a single point. If in addition L′ admits a non-singular closed 1-form2), then thereis an isometric embedding of (C∞(0,1),osc) into (L(L),ρ). c Example 1.7. If W is a surface, compact or not, and L,L′ are a pair of non-contractible curves intersecting at one point, then the theorem applies. This reproduces part of the result of Usher [11, theorem 1.3]. As will be clear from the proof, when W = T2 and L,L′ is a couple of meridians intersecting at one point, there is actually an isometric embedding of (C∞(S1)/R,osc) into L(L). More generally, if W = T2n and L,L′ are two linear Lagrangian tori, the theorem applies, and as it is clear from the proof, there is an isometric embedding of (C∞(Tn)/R,osc) into L(L). Example 1.8. This theorem can be applied to plumbings, as follows. If L,L′ are two closed connected manifolds, we can form their single-intersectionplumbing W, or more generally,we can take as W any tame symplectic manifold which contains such a plumbing of L,L′, such that in W both Lagrangians are relatively symplectically aspherical and such that (L,L′) is weakly exact.If L′ in addition admits a closed non-singular 1-form, the theorem applies. 2)ThisisequivalenttoL′ fiberingoverS1. 2 1.1 Preliminaries and notations In the rest of the paper all manifolds are connected and all Lagrangian submanifolds are closed. Throughout(W,ω)isatamesymplecticmanifoldofdimension2n. AHamiltonianonW is afunction3) H ∈C∞([0,1]×W). IfW isclosed,then,unlessstatedotherwise,allHamiltonians c are normalized, that is H ωn = 0 for all t. The Hamiltonian vector field of H is defined W t via ω(X ,·) = −dH .RThe flow φt of H is defined by φ0 = id, dφtH = X ◦φt . We Ht t H H dt Ht H abbreviate φ = φ1 . The set of all time-1 flows of all the Hamiltonians is a group G, called H H the Hamiltonian group of W. When L is a Lagrangian submanifold, the subgroup G ⊂ G L consists of all the diffeomorphisms fixing L as a set. WhenK isaHamiltonian,thereverseHamiltonianK isdefinedviaK(t,x)=−K(1−t,x). It generates the reverse isotopy φt = φ1−tφ−1. If γ: [0,1]→W is a path, the reverse path γ K K K is defined by γ(t)=γ(1−t). We will need to concatenate Hamiltonians and paths. If z,z′: [0,1] → Z are paths, where Z is a space (in this paper Z can be W, G, or C∞(W)) we let c ′ z(t), t≤1 (z♯z )(t)= . (cid:26) z′(t−1), t>1 This is a path defined over the interval [0,2]. It is continuous if z(1)=z′(0) and smooth if all thederivativesofz at1coincidewiththoseofz′at0. Aparticularlyimportantcaseiswhenwe aregiventwoHamiltoniansH,K onW andweneedtoconcatenatethem. Thereisaprocedure, called smoothing, which allows us to do this for any pair of Hamiltonians, see for example [6]. Briefly, one chooses a function f: [0,1] → [0,1] which is smooth, monotone, and equals to 0 near 0andto 1 near1. PutHf(t,x)=f′(t)H(f(t),x). ThenHf is alsonormalized,moreover it equals 0 for t near 0,1. Therefore the concatenation Hf♯Kg, where g is another smoothing function like this, isalwayswell-definedandsmooth. Moreover,dynamicalinvariantsofH are leftintact,namely,theactionspectrum,thesetofperiodicorbitsororbitswithgivenboundary conditions, and the spectral invariants. More details can be found in [6]. Below, whenever we concatenate Hamiltonians, it is implicitly assumed that they have been previously smoothed. We will also use various action functionals. Fix a Hamiltonian H. Let γ be a smooth contractible loop in W and let u be a contracting disk, that is a map u: D2 → W such that γ =u| . Define ∂D 1 ∗ A (γ)= H (γ(t))dt− u ω. H t Z0 ZD2 If ω| =0, then this is independent of u. π2(W) If γ is a smooth path with endpoints ona LagrangianL, we call it contractible for brevity, if[γ]isthetrivialelementinπ (W,L). Letubeacontractionofγ intoL,thatisu: D2 →M, 1 + where D2 = {z ∈ C||z|≤ 1,Imz ≥ 0}, with u(exp(πit)) = γ(t) and u(t) ∈ L for t ∈ [−1,1]. + Then put 1 AL(γ)= H (γ(t))dt− u∗ω. H Z0 t ZD2 + When ω| =0, this is independent of u. π2(W,L) 3)When we concatenate Hamiltonians, we obtain functions in Cc∞([0,2]×W). The necessary adjustments arelefttothereader. 3 1.2 Proofs of main results AftertheexistenceofspectralinvariantsinLagrangianFloerhomologyhasbeenestablished in the next section, the proof of main results is elementary, therefore we provide it here. Before passing to the proof, we describe the construction of the so-calledactionhomomor- phism. It is instrumental for the methods of the present paper. Let L ⊂ W be a relatively symplectically asphericalLagrangiansubmanifold. If α∈G andH is a Hamiltoniangenerat- L ing α, we put γ (t)=φt (q) for q ∈L. We have q H Proposition 1.9. The Hamiltonian chords γ are all contractible and the action AL(γ ) only q H q depends on α. The map AL: G → R thus defined is a homomorphism. Moreover, if H is a L time-dependent Hamiltonian with H | =c∈R for all t, we have AL(φ )=c. t L H The proof is given in 2.2. We call this AL the action homomorphism (associated to L). Let us now formulate the properties of spectral invariants necessary for the proof of the main results. Theorem1.10. LetL,L′ ⊂W berelativelysymplecticallyasphericalLagrangiansubmanifolds, which intersect transversely at a single point, and such that the pair (L,L′) is weakly exact. Then there is a function ℓ(·:L,L′): G →R which satisfies: (i) 1min(F −G )dt≤ℓ(φ :L,L′)−ℓ(φ :L,L′)≤ 1max(F −G )dt; 0 t t F G 0 t t R R (ii) for α∈GL′ we have ℓ(αφ:L,L′)=ℓ(φ:L,L′)+AL′(α); (iii) for β ∈G we have ℓ(β :L,L′)=AL(β); if H is a Hamiltonian with H | =c∈R, then L t L ℓ(φ :L,L′)=AL(φ )=c. H H Theorem 1.10 follows from the more general result, theorem 2.6, to whose proof is dedicated most of section 2. Now we are ready to prove the main results. In order to compute Hofer distancesbetweenvariousLagrangians,lowerandupperboundsneedtobeestablished. Upper bounds are obtained via the oscillation of certain Hamiltonians and are elementary. The nontrivial part is to prove lower bounds. Since the technical idea behind the existence of such lower bounds is the same for both of the theorems, andis interesting onits own, we formulate it as a separate lemma. Lemma 1.11. Let Q,Q′,Q′′ be relatively symplectically aspherical Lagrangian submanifolds of a tame symplectic manifold (W,ω), such that Q,Q′′ are disjoint, Q∩Q′ and Q′′∩Q′ are both transverse intersections which are single points, and such that both the pairs (Q,Q′), (Q′′,Q′) are weakly exact. If H is a Hamiltonian which satisfies H|Q = c and H|Q′′ = c′′, where c,c′′ ∈R, then ρ(φ (Q′),Q′)≥c−c′′. H Proof. Abbreviate φ=φH. Theorem1.10implies that ℓ(φ:Q,Q′)=c. Now let α∈GQ′ and let G be a Hamiltonian generating αφ. It follows that 1 maxG dt≥ℓ(αφ:Q,Q′)=ℓ(φ:Q,Q′)+AQ′(α)=c+AQ′(α). t Z 0 Analogously, ℓ(φ:Q′′,Q′)=c′′, and also 1 − minG dt≥−ℓ(αφ:Q′′,Q′)=−c′′−AQ′(α). t Z 0 4 The above two inequalities added together imply 1 ′′ oscG dt≥c−c . t Z 0 Taking infimum over α∈GQ′, we obtain ′′ ′ ′ c−c ≤ρ(φ(Q),Q). Proof (of theorems 1.3 and 1.6). Let us first prove theorem 1.3. Recall that we have the Lagrangians L,L ,...,L . For j = 1,...,k let H ∈ C∞(W,[0,1]) be an autonomous Hamil- 0 k j c tonian taking the value 1 on Lj, and the value 0 on all Lj′ for j′ =0,...,k, j′ 6=j, such that the supports of H are all pairwise disjoint. For τ =(τ ,...,τ )∈Rk let H = τ H . Put j 1 k τ j j j Lτ =φHτ(L). We claim that P ′ ρ(Lτ,Lτ′)=osc0(τ −τ ), whichisanotherwayofsayingthat(Rk,osc )→(L(L),ρ), τ 7→L ,isanisometricembedding. 0 τ This will imply the assertion of the theorem. Let us prove this. Abbreviate φ =φ and note that τ Hτ ρ(Lτ,Lτ′)=ρ(φτ(L),φτ′(L))=ρ(φτ−τ′(L),L). Therefore it is enough to show that ρ(L ,L)=osc (τ). τ 0 First, ρ(L ,L)=ρ(φ (L),L)≤oscH . τ τ τ It follows from the definition of H that oscH = osc (τ). On the other hand, lemma 1.11 τ τ 0 with Q′ =L, Q=Lj, Q′′ =Lj′, and H =Hτ, implies ρ(Lτ,L)=ρ(φτ(L),L)≥τj −τj′ for all j,j′ =0,...,k, where τ :=0. Taking now the maximum over j,j′ results in 0 ′ osc (τ)= max (τ −τ )≤ρ(L ,L)≤osc (τ), 0 j,j′=0,...,k j j τ 0 which finishes the proof of theorem 1.3. Let us now prove theorem 1.6. Recall that we have two Lagrangians L,L′. Let η be a nonsingular closed 1-form on L′. Identify a Weinstein neighborhood U of L′ with a neighbor- hood of the zero section in T∗L′, such that L∩U = T∗L′ ∩U. Without loss of generality we assume that U is the unit disk cotangent bundle of Lq′0with respect to some auxiliary Rie- mannian metric on L′. If necessary, scale η so that its graph is contained in U. We let L′ be τ the Lagrangian in W corresponding to the graph of τη inside U, where τ ∈ [0,1]. It follows that L′ is relatively symplectically aspherical and that the pair (L′,L) is weakly exact, and τ τ moreover L∩L′ is a single transverse intersection point. τ Choose a function H ∈ Cc∞(U) such that H|L′τ = τ for τ ∈ [0,1]. Extend H by zero to W. Define a map C∞(0,1) → L(L) via f 7→ L := φ (L) where φ is the time-1 map of the c f f f Hamiltonian H =f ◦H. We claim that f ′ ρ(Lf,Lf′)=osc(f −f ), 5 whichiswhattheassertionwewanttoestablishsays. Asinthefirstpart,itisenoughtoshow that ρ(L ,L)=oscf. On the one hand, we have f ρ(L ,L)=ρ(φ (L),L)≤oscH =oscf. f f f On the other hand, if τ,τ′ ∈(0,1), lemma 1.11 applied with Q′ =L, Q =L′, Q′′ =L′ , and τ τ′ H =H , implies that f ′ ρ(L ,L)≥f(τ)−f(τ ). f It follows that ′ ρ(L ,L)≥ max f(τ)−f(τ )=oscf, f τ,τ′∈(0,1) thereby completing the proof of the theorem. 1.3 Discussion First we would like to remark that the existence of spectral invariants implies results on the Hofer geometry of the Hamiltonian group itself. For φ,ψ ∈G we let 1 ρ(φ,ψ)=inf oscH dt φψ−1 =φ . t H (cid:26)Z0 (cid:12) (cid:27) (cid:12) (cid:12) This is a metric on G (see for example [9]). It follows from [5] that whenever L ⊂ W is a relatively aspherical Lagrangian, its Floer homology HF(H : L) with Hamiltonian per- turbations can be used to produce spectral invariants ℓ(A,· : L): G → R relative to classes A ∈ HF(L) = H(L). These satisfy properties analogous to those of the relative invariants introduced below. See also [6]. In particular, the following can be easily deduced. Corollary 1.12. Let (W,ω) be a tame symplectic manifold. (i) if L ,L ,...,L ⊂ are 0 1 k relatively symplectically aspherical Lagrangians, all pairwise disjoint, then there is an iso- metric embedding (Rk,osc ) → (G,ρ); (ii) if L is a relatively symplectically aspherical La- 0 grangian which admits a non-singular closed 1-form, then there is an isometric embedding (C∞(0,1),osc)→(G,ρ). c Secondly, we would like to point out that while the spectral invariants ℓ(· : L,L′): G → R as in theorem 1.10 above are defined on the Hamiltonian group G, if L′′ is another relatively symplectically aspherical Lagrangian, disjoint from L and intersecting L′ transversely at one point, thenthe differenceℓ:=ℓ(·:L,L′)−ℓ(·:L′′,L′)infactdescendstoL(L′). Thefunction thus obtained is in a sense (which can be made precise) a generalization of Viterbo’s spectral invariants for Lagrangian submanifolds of cotangent bundles. This function ℓ: L(L′) → R is LipschitzintheHofermetric: ℓ(K,K′)≤ρ(K,K′)forK,K′ ∈L(L′). Moreover,lowerbounds on this function are obtained as in lemma 1.11 via the action homomorphism. Namely, if β ∈GL andβ′′ ∈GL′′, then ℓ(β(L′),β′′(L′))≥AL(β)−AL′′(β′′). This is whatmakesit useful in computing Hofer’s metric on L(L′). Acknowledgements. I would like to thank Kai Cieliebak and R´emi Leclercq for helpful discussions, and Leonid Polterovich for useful suggestions. Part of this work was carried out during my stay at Ludwig-Maximilian-Universit¨at, Munich. I wish to thank this institution for a stimulating researchatmosphere and hospitality. 6 2 Spectral invariants in Lagrangian Floer theory In this section we assume that (W,ω) is a tame symplectic manifold. We are given two transverselyintersectingrelativelysymplecticallyasphericalLagrangiansL,L′ ⊂W,suchthat thepair(L,L′)isweaklyexact. AllhomologyiswithcoefficientsinZ andthecountofmoduli 2 spaces is modulo 2. 2.1 Definition and first properties We begin with a brief sketch of the construction of the Floer homology of the pair (L,L′) with Hamiltonian perturbations. General references are [3] and [7]. We fix an intersection point q ∈ L ∩ L′ once and for all and consider the connected 0 component Ω of the constant path at q in the space of smooth paths {γ: [0,1] → W |γ(0)∈ 0 L,γ(1) ∈ L′}. Since the pair (L,L′) is weakly exact, whenever γ ∈ Ω and u is a homotopy from q to γ, the integral 0 ∗ u ω Z is independent of u. Given a Hamiltonian H, we let AL,L′: Ω → R be the action functional H defined as 1 AL,L′(γ)= H (γ(t))dt− u∗ω H Z t Z 0 for any homotopy u from q to γ. Its critical point set CritAL,L′ consists precisely of those 0 H elements γ ∈ Ω which are Hamiltonian chords from L to L′, that is which satisfy γ˙(t) = X (γ(t)). The map CritAL,L′ → φ (L)∩L′, γ 7→ γ(1) is injective. We let CF(H : L,L′) Ht H H be the Z -vector space4) spanned by CritAL,L′. We call H regular if φ (L) intersects L′ 2 H H transversely. Regular Hamiltonians are generic. We choose H regular, so that CritAL,L′ is H finite and CF(H :L,L′) is finite-dimensional. Choose now a time-dependent compatible almost complex structure J on W for which W t is convex. This gives rise to an L2-type metric on Ω and the negative gradient equation for AL,L′ translates into Floer’s PDE H ∂u ∂u +J (u) −X (u) =0 ∂s t (cid:18)∂t Ht (cid:19) for u: R×[0,1] → W satisfying the boundary conditions u(R×0) ⊂ L, u(R×1) ⊂ L′. For γ± ∈ CritALH,L′ we let M(γ−,γ+;H,J) be the space of solutions of this PDE subject to the asymptotic conditions u(±∞,·) = γ±. For a generic choice of J this is a finite-dimensional c smooth manifold. Moreover,note that if u∈M(γ−,γ+;H,J) then E(u):=ZR×[0,1](cid:12)(cid:12)∂∂us(cid:12)(cid:12)2 dsdct=ALH,L′(γ−)−ALH,L′(γ+). (cid:12) (cid:12) (cid:12) (cid:12) AlsonotethatE(u)≥0withequalityifandonlyifuisaconstantmap. Incaseγ− 6=γ+ welet M(γ−,γ+;H,J)bethequotientbythenaturalactionofR. WealsoputM(γ−,γ−;H,J)=∅. 4)ThisvectorspaceisungradedsincethereisnorequirementonMaslovindices. 7 The Floer boundary operator on CF(H :L,L′) is given on generators by ∂γ− = #M(γ−,γ+;H,J)γ+, γ+:dimM(Xγ−,γ+;H,J)=0 where for a manifold Y we let #Y be the modulo 2 number of points in the zero-dimensional part of Y. It is a standard fact that ∂2 = 0 and we let HF(H : L,L′) be the corresponding homology. We omit the almost complex structure from the notation since neither the Floer homology nor the spectral invariants which we will introduce shortly depend on it. SinceL,L′intersecttransversely,thezeroHamiltonianisregular. InthiscaseHF(0:L,L′) isnothingbutthe(componentatq ofthe)usualFloerhomologyHF(L,L′)ofthepair(L,L′). 0 We record a particularly important special case: Lemma 2.1. If q is theonly intersection point of L,L′ thenHF(0:L,L′)=Z ·q ≡Z . 0 2 0 2 This is true since the boundary operator vanishes. Indeed, by definition M(q ,q ;0,J)=∅. 0 0 ForanytworegularHamiltoniansH,H′andanytworegularalmostcomplexstructuresJ,J′ there is a canonical continuation isomorphism HF(H : L,L′)=HF(H′ :L,L′)=HF(L,L′). Since the boundary operator counts negative gradient lines of the action functional, it follows that the subspace CFa(H : L,L′) ⊂ CF(H : L,L′) generated by the critical points of A of H action <a is a subcomplex. We let ia: HFa(H :L,L′)→HF(H :L,L′)=HF(L,L′) be the morphism induced by the inclusion. The aforementioned continuation isomorphisms leave the mapsia intactifweonlychangeJ,thereforeweomititfromthe notationthroughout. We are now in position to define the spectral invariants. For A∈HF(L,L′)−{0} we let ℓ(A,H :L,L′)=inf{a|A∈imia}. From the definition it follows that the spectral invariants are spectral, that is ℓ(A,H : L,L′) belongs to the action spectrum Spec(H :L,L′)=AL,L′ CritAL,L′ . H H We have defined spectral invariants for a regular Ha(cid:0)miltonian.(cid:1)The existence of the con- tinuation isomorphisms implies the following: 1 1 ′ ′ ′ ′ ′ min(H −H )dt≤ℓ(A,H :L,L)−ℓ(A,H :L,L)≤ max(H −H )dt Z t t Z t t 0 0 for regular H,H′. These inequalities allow us to define ℓ(A,G:L,L′) for an arbitrary smooth Hamiltonian5) G, in the standard manner. Using techniques similar to those of [8], we can show that these extended invariants are also spectral. 2.2 Hamiltonian loops and the action homomorphism InordertobeabletousespectralinvariantsinestimatesontheLagrangianHoferdistance, we need to show that they are defined on the Hamiltonian group, that is, that ℓ(A,H :L,L′) in fact only depends on the time-1 map φ . The first step is to show that the action of any H periodic orbit of a Hamiltonian generating a loop in G is zero. 5)Infact,atthesamepricewecandefinethemforarbitrarycontinuous Hamiltonians,however thiswillnot beneeded inthispaper. 8 Since L is relatively symplectically aspherical, W is symplectically aspherical. Let G be a Hamiltonian generating a loop6) in G. Consider first the case of W closed. The existence of Floerhomology(seeforexample[10])impliesthatevery1-periodicorbitoftheformt7→φt (z) G is contractible. Moreover, in [10] it is proved that the action of every such orbit is zero (remember that G is normalized). If W is open, there is a simpler argument. First, all the periodic orbits of G are homotopic, which implies that all of them are contractible, because orbits outside the support of G are just constant. It also follows that the action of these constant orbits is zero, and since the action is independent of the beginning of the orbit, all the actions of the periodic orbits vanish. We thus have Lemma 2.2. Let G be a Hamiltonian such that φ =id. Then any periodic orbit of the form G t7→φt (z), where z ∈W, is contractible, its action is well-defined and equal to zero. G We can now establish the existence of the action homomorphism. Proof (or proposition 1.9). It follows from the existence of Floer homology for relatively symplectically aspherical Lagrangians (see for example [5]) that at least one of the chords γ q is contractible. Since all of them are homotopic, it follows that all of them are contractible. This implies that the actions AL(γ ) are well-defined and are all equal. It remains to show H q that this number is independent of H. PutγH(t)=φt (q). LetK beanotherHamiltoniangeneratingφ ,andletγK(t)=φt (q). q H H q K We need to prove that AL(γK) = AL(γH). Pick a contracting half-disk u for γH. The K q H q q concatenation γH♯γK is a periodic orbit of the flow of the concatenated Hamiltonian H♯K. q q Since this Hamiltonian generates the identity map, the above lemma implies that there is a contracting disk v for γH♯γK and that q q A γH♯γK =0. H♯K q q (cid:0) (cid:1) Writing out the action, we have 2 A γH♯γK = H♯K γH♯γK (t) dt− v∗ω. H♯K q q Z t q q Z (cid:0) (cid:1) 0 (cid:0) (cid:1) (cid:0)(cid:0) (cid:1) (cid:1) Since v provides a homotopy with fixed endpoints from γK to γH, the concatenation v♯u is a q q contracting half-disk for γK and therefore q 1 1 AL(γH)−AL(γK)= H (γH(t))dt− u∗ω− K (γK(t))dt+ (v♯u)∗ω H q K q Z t q Z Z t q Z 0 0 2 = H♯K γH♯γK (t) dt− v∗ω =A γH♯γK =0 Z t q q Z H♯K q q 0 (cid:0) (cid:1) (cid:0)(cid:0) (cid:1) (cid:1) (cid:0) (cid:1) by the discussion above. It remains to show that if H is such that H| = c ∈ R then L AL(φ ) = c. This follows from the fact that the flow of such a Hamiltonian preserves L H and thus the area part of the action of any Hamiltonian chord vanishes since it is completely contained in L, while the first part is seen to be equal to c. This finishes the proof of the proposition. 6)In agreement with our convention, since G needs to be time-periodic in order for what follows to make sense,wesmoothitasdescribedinsubsection1.1. 9 2.3 The shift of spectral invariants and independence of isotopy In this subsection we establish the shift property of spectral invariants and use it to prove their independence of isotopy. Theorem 2.3. Let K,H be Hamiltonians such that φK ∈ GL′. Put Gt = Kt+Ht◦(φtK)−1. Then for any A∈HF(L,L′) we have ℓ(A,G:L,L′)=ℓ(A,H :L,L′)+AL′(φ ). K Proof. The proof is based on the so-called naturality isomorphism, see for example [1], [5]. We only sketch the construction; the interested reader is referred to these papers for details. The map CritAL,L′ →CritAL,L′, γ 7→γK, H G where γK(t) = φt (γ(t)), is well-defined and is a bijection. Perhaps the non-trivial point K here is that it maps elements of Ω back to Ω. This can be seen as follows. The curve γK is homotopic with fixed endpoints to the concatenation γ♯δ where δ(t) = φt (γ(1)). But δ is a K HamiltonianchordofK,whoseflowmapsL′ backtoitself,andthereforeitiscontractibleinto L′ by proposition 1.9. This shows that γK is homotopic to q if γ is. 0 Since the path {φt } , which is generated by G, is homotopic with fixed endpoints to the G t concatenation {φt } ♯{φt φ } , which is generatedby the concatenated Hamiltonian H♯K, it H t K H t follows from a standard argument (see for example, [8]) that AL,L′(γ♯δ)=AL,L′(γK). H♯K G Since action is additive under concatenations and AL′(δ) = AL′(φ ) by proposition 1.9, we K K have AL,L′(γK)=AL,L′(γ)+AL′(φ ), G H K that is, γ 7→γK shifts the action by AL′(φ ). K Next we have the map M(γ−,γ+;H,J)→M(γ−K,γ+K;G,JK), u7→uK, where uK(s,t) = φt c(u(s,t)) and JK =cφt J (φt )−1. This map is a diffeomorphism. K t K,∗ t K,∗ Clearly it preserves the R-action and so passes to a diffeomorphism M(γ−,γ+;H,J) → M(γK,γK;G,JK). The net result is that γ 7→γK extends to a chain isomorphism − + CFa(H :L,L′)→CFa+AL′(φK)(G:L,L′) for any a, and the assertion of the theorem follows. Remark 2.4. Note that the proof of this theorem implies that the action spectrum Spec(H : L,L′) only depends on φ . This follows from the definition of the above bijection γ 7→ γK H which preserves the actions if K generates the identity map since then AL′(φ )=0. K We can now prove Proposition 2.5. The spectral invariant ℓ(A,H :L,L′) only depends on φ ∈G. H 10