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Let $W$ be a infinite dimensional Banach space equipped with a symplectic form $\Omega$. Let $E\subset W$ be a closed subspace and $E^\Omega$ the symplectic orthogonal complement of E w.r.t. $\Omega$.

I learned from a book that $(E^\Omega)^\Omega=E$. But I cannot find a way to prove it. Can someone give me a proof? Thanks!

Chengbo
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  • Conceptually this is no different than the case of the orthogonal complement of a closed subspace of a Hilbert space. You can find that in many places. Try adapting that proof mutatis mutandis. – José Figueroa-O'Farrill Feb 15 '17 at 16:28
  • It is easy to prove it when the symplectic form $\Omega$ is strongly nondegenerate, exactly the same as in Hilbert space theory. But I cannot go through when it is only weakly nondegenerate. – Chengbo Feb 16 '17 at 08:18
  • What are the two notions of degeneracy, strong and weak? – Sam Lisi Feb 27 '17 at 07:13
  • The symplectic two-form $\Omega:W\times W\rightarrow \mathbb R$ induces a mapping $\Omega^b:W\rightarrow W^*$. If $\Omega^b$ is injective, it is called weakly nondegenerate. If it is also surjective, is called strongly nondegenerate. – Chengbo Feb 28 '17 at 11:19

1 Answers1

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This claim is not true for not strongly symplectic vector spaces, as is implied by the corollary at the bottom of this answer. (It is true for strongly symplectic ones, as expressed in the comments to the question.)

I recall that a (real) topological vector space $(W, \Omega)$ is presymplectic if it is equipped with a continuous antisymmetric bilinear form $\Omega : W \times W \to \mathbb{R}$. This form induces a linear map $\Omega^{\flat} : W \to W^{\ast} : v \mapsto \Omega(v, -)$. $\Omega$ is weakly symplectic if $\Omega^{\flat}$ is injective and strongly symplectic if it is bijective. Both notions coincide in finite dimension, but they are strictly distinct as claimed by the first proposition below.

Proposition 1. There exists a weakly but not strongly symplectic (Hilbert) space $(W, \Omega)$.

Proof: This follows for instance from the theorem in this article of Marsden and from a theorem of Weinstein referenced therein. $\square$

Proposition 2. Given a symplectic vector space $(W, \Omega)$, the kernel $E$ of a nonzero map $\alpha \in W^{\ast}$ is a closed proper subspace such that $E^{\Omega} \subset E$. Moreover, $\mathrm{dim} \, E^{\Omega} \le 1$ with equality only if $\alpha \in \mathrm{Im} \, \Omega^{\flat}$.

Proof: Given a nonzero element $\alpha \in W^{\ast}$, that is a nonzero continuous map $\alpha : W \to \mathbb{R}$, its kernel $E$ is clearly closed and a proper subspace of $E$. Set $F := E^{\Omega}$.

Observe that for any $w \in W \setminus E$ (such an element exists), we have $W = E + \mathbb{R}w \cong E \oplus \mathbb{R}w$. Given any nonzero element $f \in F$ (if it exists), we have $\Omega(f, w) \neq 0$; Indeed, the nondegeneracy of $\Omega$ implies that there exists $e \in E$ and $r \in \mathbb{R}$ such that

$$ 0 \neq \Omega(f, e + rw) = r \Omega(f,w) $$

with the equality due to the fact that $f \in F := E^{\Omega}$.

This implies $F \subset E$. Indeed, if it were otherwise, there would exists $f \in F \setminus E$ and we would have $W = E + \mathbb{R}f \cong E \oplus \mathbb{R}f$. Taking $w = f$, the above inequality and antisymmetry would imply $0 \neq \Omega(w,f) = \Omega(f,f) = 0$, a contradiction.

This implies also $\mathrm{dim} \, F \le 1$. Indeed, otherwise, there would exist two independent vectors $f, g \in F$ normalised such that $\Omega(w, f) = 1 = \Omega(w, g)$, and we would have that the nonzero vector $h := f-g \in F$ satisfies $\Omega(w, h) = 0$, contradicting the above.

Suppose that $\mathrm{dim} F = 1$; We claim that this implies $\alpha \in \mathrm{Im} \, \Omega^{\flat}$. Indeed, let $f \in F$ be the unique element such that $\Omega(f, w) = \alpha(w) \neq 0$. It readily follows that $\alpha = \Omega^{\flat}(f)$. $\square$

Corollary. If $(W, \Omega)$ is a weakly but not strongly symplectic topological vector space, then there exists a closed proper subspace $E \subsetneq W$ such that $(E^{\Omega})^{\Omega} = W$.

Proof: By hypothesis, there exists $\alpha \in W^{\ast} \setminus \mathrm{Im} \, \Omega^{\flat}$. Set $E = \mathrm{Ker} \, \alpha$ and $F = E^{\Omega}$. From the previous proposition, $F = \{0\}$, hence $F^{\Omega} = W \neq E$. $\square$

This means in particular that not strongly symplectic vector spaces admit codimension one symplectic subspaces!

  • Thank you! It is the answer that I want. Cheers! – Chengbo May 18 '17 at 07:38
  • "...with equality only if..." Couldn't that be "if and only if"? Given $\alpha=\Omega^\flat(f)\neq0$, then by definition of kernel, $\forall e\in E,;\Omega(f,e)=0$, which is precisely the condition that $f\in F$; thus $\text{dim}(F)\geq1$. – mr_e_man Nov 18 '18 at 01:50
  • Why must $\Omega^\flat$ be continuous? What topology are you using for $W^*$? ... What happens if $\Omega^\flat$ is surjective but not injective? Can $W$ always be given a topology that makes $\Omega^\flat$ bijective? (Maybe I should ask a new question instead of commenting.) – mr_e_man Nov 18 '18 at 06:39
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    @mr_e_man You're right for the "if and only if"; I most probably simply didn't noticed the "if" part but to my defense it is the simplest part and the irrelevant one to the question. Regarding your other comments, the continuity of $\Omega^{\flat}$ is irrelevant to this question, so is the topology on $W^$; what matters is the continuity of $\Omega$ so that $\Omega^{\flat}$ is $W^$-valued (it's injective by nondegeneracy). I did mention that $\Omega^{\flat}$ was continuous, which makes no sense without an explicit topology on $W^*$; I removed this irrelevant adjective from my answer. Thanks. – Jordan Payette Nov 19 '18 at 00:20
  • "injective by nondegeneracy": I was talking about a presymplectic $\Omega$. (I assume that's allowed to be degenerate...?) $\Omega^\flat$ could be surjective and not injective if $W$ had, for example, trivial topology, making $W^*$ smaller than $W$. – mr_e_man Nov 21 '18 at 07:36
  • @mr_e_man This leads us away from the original context of Chengbo's question. If $W$ has a sufficiently 'natural' topology from the point of view of functional analysis for the Hahn-Banach theorem to hold, as in Chengbo's context, then for every nonzero $w \in W$ there is $l = l_w \in W^$ such that $l(w) \neq 0$. Consequently $\Omega^{\flat} : W \to W^$ cannot be surjective and noninjective: noninjectivity would imply that there is a nonzero $w$ such that $\Omega(w, -) = 0$ while surjectivity would imply that there is $v$ such that $\Omega(-, v) = l_w$ hence $\Omega(w,v) \neq 0$... – Jordan Payette Nov 21 '18 at 13:21