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# Loops of Lagrangian submanifolds and pseudoholomorphic discs

## 1 Introduction

In this paper we study the Hofer geometry for exact loops of Lagrangian submanifolds of a symplectic manifold $`(M,\omega )`$. Think of such a loop as a submanifold $`\mathrm{\Lambda }S^1\times M`$ such that the projection $`\mathrm{\Lambda }S^1`$ is a submersion and

$$\mathrm{\Lambda }_t:=\{zM|(e^{2\pi it},z)\mathrm{\Lambda }\}$$

is a Lagrangian submanifold of $`M`$ for every $`t`$. The loop is called exact if there exists a Hamiltonian isotopy $`\psi _t`$ of $`M`$ such that $`\psi _t(\mathrm{\Lambda }_0)=\mathrm{\Lambda }_t`$ for every $`t`$. The Hofer length of an exact Lagrangian loop $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ is defined by

$$\mathrm{}(\mathrm{\Lambda }):=_0^1\left(\underset{\mathrm{\Lambda }_t}{\mathrm{max}}H_t\underset{\mathrm{\Lambda }_t}{\mathrm{min}}H_t\right)𝑑t,$$

where the Hamiltonian functions $`H_t:M`$ are chosen such that the corresponding Hamiltonian isotopy $`\psi _t:MM`$ satisfies $`\psi _t(\mathrm{\Lambda }_0)=\mathrm{\Lambda }_t`$. It is interesting to minimize the Hofer length over the Hamiltonian isotopy class of $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$. This infimum will be denoted by

$$\nu (\mathrm{\Lambda })=\nu (\mathrm{\Lambda };M,\omega ):=\underset{\mathrm{\Lambda }\mathrm{\Lambda }^{}}{inf}\mathrm{}(\mathrm{\Lambda }^{}).$$

As an explicit example consider the space $`=(P^n,P^n)`$ of Lagrangian submanifolds of $`P^n`$ that are diffeomorphic to $`P^n`$. It contains the finite dimensional manifold $`\mathrm{PL}(n+1)`$ of projective Lagrangian planes. The space $`\mathrm{PL}(n+1)`$ is the orbit of $`P^n`$ under the action of $`\mathrm{PU}(n+1)`$ and its fundamental group is isomorphic to $`_{n+1}`$. Consider the loop $`\mathrm{\Lambda }^kS^1\times P^n`$ defined by

$$\mathrm{\Lambda }^k:=\underset{t}{}\{e^{2\pi it}\}\times \varphi _{kt}(P^n),$$
(1)
where $`\varphi _t([z_0:\mathrm{}:z_n]):=[e^{\pi it}z_0:z_1:\mathrm{}:z_n]`$ and $`k`$. The loops $`\mathrm{\Lambda }^j`$ and $`\mathrm{\Lambda }^k`$ are homotopic in $`\mathrm{PL}(n+1)`$ (as based loops) if and only if they are Hamiltonian isotopic (as free loops) if and only if $`kj`$ is divisible by $`n+1`$. If $`kj`$ is not divisible by $`n+1`$ then $`\mathrm{\Lambda }^j`$ and $`\mathrm{\Lambda }^k`$ can be distinguished by the Maslov index. More precisely, every Lagrangian loop $`\mathrm{\Lambda }S^1\times P^n`$, with fibres $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_t`$ Lagrangian isotopic to $`P^n`$, has a well defined Maslov index $`\mu (\mathrm{\Lambda })_{n+1}`$. It is defined as the Maslov index of a smooth map $`u:D=\{z||z|1\}M`$ such that $`u(e^{2\pi it})\mathrm{\Lambda }_t`$. Such maps $`u`$ always exist and the Maslov indices of any two such maps differ by an integer multiple of $`n+1`$. It turns out that

$$\mu (\mathrm{\Lambda }^k)k\text{ mod }n+1.$$
(2)
In the case $`n=1`$ the loop $`\mathrm{\Lambda }^1`$ is obtained by rotating a great circle on the 2-sphere through 180 degrees around an axis that passes through the circle. The result is an embedding of the Klein bottle into $`S^1\times S^2`$. The image of this embedding is a Lagrangian submanifold of $`D\times S^2`$ with respect to a suitable symplectic form. In contrast $`\mathrm{\Lambda }^0`$ is a Lagrangian torus in $`D\times S^2`$. In general, the cases where $`n`$ is even and where $`n`$ is odd are topologically different. If $`n`$ is even, then $`\mathrm{\Lambda }^k`$ is diffeomorphic to $`S^1\times P^n`$ for every $`k`$. If $`n`$ is odd then $`\mathrm{\Lambda }^j`$ is diffeomorphic to $`\mathrm{\Lambda }^k`$ if and only if $`kj`$ is even, and $`\mathrm{\Lambda }^k`$ is orientable if and only if $`k`$ is even. In particular, $`\mathrm{\Lambda }^k`$ is diffeomorphic to $`\mathrm{\Lambda }^0=S^1\times P^n`$ whenever $`k`$ is even.

Fix $`k\{1,\mathrm{},n\}`$ and consider the exact Lagrangian loop

$$\mathrm{\Lambda }:=\underset{t}{}\{e^{2\pi it}\}\times \psi _t(P^n),$$

where

$$\psi _t([z_0:\mathrm{}:z_n]):=([z_0:e^{\pi it}z_1:\mathrm{}:e^{\pi it}z_k:z_{k+1}:\mathrm{}:z_n]).$$

This loop is Hamiltonian isotopic to $`\mathrm{\Lambda }^k`$ and it has Hofer length $`1/2`$, whereas $`\mathrm{\Lambda }^k`$ has Hofer length $`k/2`$. The next theorem asserts that $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ minimizes the Hofer length in its Hamiltonian isotopy class and hence is a geodesic for the Hofer metric.

Theorem A  Let $`\omega \mathrm{\Omega }^2(P^n)`$ denote the Fubini-Study form that satisfies the normalization condition $`_{P^n}\omega ^n=1.`$ Then

$$\nu (\mathrm{\Lambda }^k;P^n,\omega )=\frac{1}{2}$$

for $`k=1,\mathrm{},n`$ and $`\nu (\mathrm{\Lambda }^0)=0`$.

This is a Lagrangian analogue of a theorem by Polterovich  about loops of Hamiltonian symplectomorphisms of complex projective space. Following  we introduce two other invariants of exact Lagrangian loops $`\mathrm{\Lambda }S^1\times M`$ that can be expressed in terms of Hamiltonian connection $`2`$-forms $`\tau `$ on the trivial bundle $`D\times M`$ that vanish over $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$. Let $`𝒯(\mathrm{\Lambda })\mathrm{\Omega }^2(D\times M)`$ denote the space of such connection $`2`$-forms. The relative K-area $`\chi (\mathrm{\Lambda })`$ is obtained by minimizing the Hofer norm of the curvature $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\tau `$ over $`𝒯(\mathrm{\Lambda })`$. The third invariant is related to the relative cohomology classes $`[\tau ]H^2(D\times M,\mathrm{\Lambda };)`$ of $`\tau 𝒯(\mathrm{\Lambda })`$. These form a $`1`$-dimensional affine space parallel to the subspace generated by the integral cohomology class $`\sigma :=[dxdy/\pi ]`$. For $`\tau _0,\tau _1𝒯(\mathrm{\Lambda })`$ define $`s(\tau _1,\tau _0)`$ by $`s(\tau _1,\tau _0)\sigma =[\tau _1][\tau _0].`$ The invariant $`\epsilon (\mathrm{\Lambda })`$ is defined by

$$\epsilon (\mathrm{\Lambda }):=\epsilon ^+(\tau _0,\mathrm{\Lambda })\epsilon ^{}(\tau _0,\mathrm{\Lambda }),$$

for $`\tau _0𝒯(\mathrm{\Lambda })`$, where

$$\epsilon ^+(\tau _0,\mathrm{\Lambda }):=inf\{s(\tau ,\tau _0)|\tau 𝒯(\mathrm{\Lambda }),\tau ^{n+1}>0\},$$

$$\epsilon ^{}(\tau _0,\mathrm{\Lambda }):=sup\{s(\tau ,\tau _0)|\tau 𝒯(\mathrm{\Lambda }),\tau ^{n+1}<0\}.$$

Theorem B  For every exact Lagrangian loop $`\mathrm{\Lambda }S^1\times M`$

$$\epsilon (\mathrm{\Lambda })\chi (\mathrm{\Lambda })=\nu (\mathrm{\Lambda }).$$

A lower bound for $`\epsilon (\mathrm{\Lambda })`$ can sometimes be obtained by studying pseudoholomorphic sections of $`D\times M`$ with boundary values in $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$. We assume that the pair $`(M,\mathrm{\Lambda }_0)`$ is monotone and fix a class $`AH_2(D\times M,\mathrm{\Lambda };)`$ that satisfies

$$n\pm \mu _\mathrm{\Lambda }(A)N2,$$

where $`n=dim\mathrm{\Lambda }_0=dimM/2`$, $`N`$ denotes the minimal Maslov number of the pair $`(M,\mathrm{\Lambda }_0)`$, and $`\mu _\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ denotes the Maslov class. Under these assumptions we define Gromov invariants

$$\mathrm{Gr}_A^\pm (\mathrm{\Lambda })H_{n\pm \mu _\mathrm{\Lambda }(A)}(\mathrm{\Lambda }_0;_2).$$

A connection $`2`$-form $`\tau 𝒯(\mathrm{\Lambda })`$ and an $`\omega `$-compatible almost complex structure $`J`$ on $`M`$ determine an almost complex structure $`\stackrel{~}{J}=\stackrel{~}{J}(\tau ,J)`$ on $`D\times M`$. Under our assumptions the moduli space of $`\stackrel{~}{J}(\tau ,\pm J)`$-holomorphic sections of $`D\times M`$ is, for a generic $`\tau `$, a compact smooth manifold of dimension $`n\pm \mu _\mathrm{\Lambda }(A)`$. The Gromov invariant is defined as the image of the mod-2 fundamental class under the evaluation map $`uu(1)`$. Now let $`\mathrm{\Lambda }^kS^1\times P^n`$ be given by (1) with $`1kn`$. Let $`A^\pm H_2(D\times P^n,\mathrm{\Lambda }^k;)`$ be the homology classes of the constant sections $`u^+(x,y)[1:0:\mathrm{}:0]`$ and $`u^{}(x,y)[0:\mathrm{}:0:1]`$.

Theorem C  $`\mathrm{Gr}_{A^\pm }^\pm (\mathrm{\Lambda }^k)0`$.

Theorem C can be interpreted as an existence result for pseudoholomorphic sections and we shall use this to prove that $`\epsilon (\mathrm{\Lambda }^k)1/2`$. On the other hand the Hamiltonian isotopy class of $`\mathrm{\Lambda }^k`$ contains a loop of length equal to $`1/2`$. Hence Theorem A follows from Theorem B.

We expect that the same techniques can be used to obtain similar results for general symplectic quotients of $`^n`$ by subgroups of $`\mathrm{U}(n)`$. These quotients will not, in general, satisfy our assumption of monotonicity for the definition of the Gromov invariants. However, it should be possible to derive the same conclusions by using the invariants introduced in Cieliebak–Gaio–Salamon  instead. This programme will be carried out elsewhere.

In  Polterovich studied the Hofer length of loops $`\psi _t=\psi _{t+1}:MM`$ of Hamiltonian symplectomorphisms. Let $`PS^2`$ denote the Hamiltonian fibration associated to the Hamiltonian loop. Poltervich introduced invariants $`\nu ^\pm (P)`$, $`\chi ^\pm (P)`$, and $`\epsilon ^\pm (P)`$ on which our invariants are modelled. Here $`\nu ^+(P)`$ is obtained by minimizing the positive part of the Hofer length in a given Hamiltonian isotopy class, the K-area $`\chi ^+(P)`$ is a symplectic analogue of an invariant introduced by Gromov , and the invariant $`\epsilon ^+(P)`$ is based on the coupling construction of Guillemin–Lerman–Sternberg . In  Polterovich proves that these invariants are equal:

$$\epsilon ^\pm (P)=\chi ^\pm (P)=\nu ^\pm (P).$$

We adopt the convention $`\pm \nu ^\pm (P)0`$. Let us denote by $`\nu (P)`$, $`\chi (P)`$, and $`\epsilon (P)`$ the Hamiltonian analogues of our invariants of Lagrangian loops. These were also considered by Polterovich and he noted that

$$\epsilon (P)=\epsilon ^+(P)\epsilon ^{}(P)=\nu ^+(P)\nu ^{}(P)\nu (P).$$

This is the Hamiltonian analogue of Theorem B. Now consider the Lagrangian loop $`\mathrm{\Lambda }S^1\times \overline{M}\times M`$ given by

$$\mathrm{\Lambda }_t=\mathrm{graph}(\psi _t).$$

The invariants introduced by Polterovich are related to our invariants by

$$\nu (\mathrm{\Lambda })\nu (P),\epsilon (\mathrm{\Lambda })\epsilon (P).$$

The Gromov invariants of the fibration $`P`$ associated to a Hamiltonian loop were independently studied by Seidel  and his results were used by Lalonde–McDuff–Polterovich  to prove that Hamiltonian loops act trivially on homology. Our results on the Gromov invariants can be viewed as Lagrangian analogues of results in  on the Gromov invariants of symplectic fibrations.

The present paper is organized as follows. In Section 2 we discuss background material about the Hofer metric. The space of Lagrangian submanifolds is naturally foliated by Hamiltonian isotopy classes and the Hofer metric is defined on each leaf of this foliation. In Section 3 we introduce the invariants $`\nu (\mathrm{\Lambda })`$, $`\chi (\mathrm{\Lambda })`$, and $`\epsilon (\mathrm{\Lambda })`$ of exact Lagrangian loops and give a proof of Theorem B. In the $`2`$-dimensional case the invariant $`\nu (\mathrm{\Lambda })`$ can sometimes be computed explicitly. This is done in Section 4 for the $`2`$-torus. In Section 5 we introduce the Gromov invariants and in Section 6 we prove Theorems A and C. In Appendix A we prove a result about Hamiltonian isotopy on Riemann surfaces which is used in Section 4.

Acknowledgement: We would like to thank Leonid Polterovich for suggesting the topic and for many helpful discussions.

## 2 The Hofer metric for Lagrangian submanifolds

Let $`(M,\omega )`$ be a $`2n`$-dimensional symplectic manifold and $`L`$ be a compact connected $`n`$-manifold without boundary. Denote by

$$𝒳=\left\{\iota \mathrm{Emb}(L,M)\right|\iota ^{}\omega =0\}$$

the space of Lagrangian embeddings of $`L`$ into $`M`$. The group $`𝒢=\mathrm{Diff}(L)`$ acts on this space by $`\iota \iota \varphi `$ for $`\varphi 𝒢`$. Two Lagrangian embeddings $`\iota _0,\iota _1𝒳`$ lie in the same $`𝒢`$-orbit if and only if they have the same image $`\mathrm{\Lambda }=\iota _0(L)=\iota _1(L)`$. Hence the quotient space

$$:=𝒳/𝒢$$

can be naturally identified with the set of Lagrangian submanifolds of $`M`$ that are diffeomorphic to $`L`$. A function $`:t\mathrm{\Lambda }_t`$ is called smooth if there exists a smooth function $`\times LM:(t,q)\iota _t(q)`$ such that $`\iota _t(L)=\mathrm{\Lambda }_t`$ for all $`t`$. One can think of $``$ as an infinite dimensional manifold.

###### Lemma 2.1

The tangent space of $``$ at a point $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ can be naturally identified with the space of closed $`1`$-forms on $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$:

$$T_\mathrm{\Lambda }=\left\{\beta \mathrm{\Omega }^1(\mathrm{\Lambda })\right|d\beta =0\}$$

Proof:  Let $`\times LM:(t,q)\iota _t(q)`$ be a smooth function such that $`\iota _t𝒳`$ for all $`t`$ and define

$$\alpha _t:=\omega (v_t,d\iota _t)\mathrm{\Omega }^1(L),v_t:=_t\iota _t𝒞^{\mathrm{}}(L,\iota _{t}^{}{}_{}{}^{}TM).$$
(3)
Then

$$0=_t\iota _{t}^{}{}_{}{}^{}\omega =d\alpha _t$$

and hence the tangent space of $`𝒳`$ at $`\iota `$ is given by

$$T_\iota 𝒳=\{v𝒞^{\mathrm{}}(L,\iota ^{}TM)|\omega (v,d\iota )\mathrm{\Omega }^1(L)\text{ is closed}\}.$$

The tangent space to the $`𝒢`$-orbit consists of all vector fields of the form $`v=d\iota \xi `$, where $`\xi \mathrm{Vect}(L)`$. The map $`v\omega (v,d\iota )`$ identifies the quotient space $`T_\iota 𝒳/T_\iota (\iota 𝒢)`$ with the space of closed $`1`$-forms on $`L`$.

If $`\iota _t,\iota _t^{}𝒳`$ are two smooth paths in $`𝒳`$ that satisfy $`\iota _t^{}=\iota _t\varphi _t`$ for some path $`\varphi _t𝒢`$ then the vector fields $`v_t:=_t\iota _t`$ and $`v_t^{}:=_t\iota _t^{}`$ are related by

$$v_t^{}=v_t\varphi _t+d\iota _t\xi _t\varphi _t$$

where $`\xi _t\mathrm{Vect}(L)`$ generates the diffeomorphism $`\varphi _t`$ via $`_t\varphi _t=\xi _t\varphi _t.`$ Hence the $`1`$-forms $`\alpha _t:=\omega (v_t,d\iota _t)`$ and $`\alpha _t^{}:=\omega (v_t^{},d\iota _t^{})`$ are related by

$$\alpha _t^{}=\varphi _{t}^{}{}_{}{}^{}\alpha _t.$$

Hence two closed $`1`$-forms $`\alpha ,\alpha ^{}\mathrm{\Omega }^1(L)`$ corresponding to two Lagrangian embeddings $`\iota `$ and $`\iota ^{}=\iota \varphi `$ represent the same tangent vector of $``$ if and only if $`\alpha ^{}=\varphi ^{}\alpha `$ or, equivalently, $`\iota _{}\alpha =\iota _{}^{}{}_{}{}^{}\alpha ^{}`$. This proves the lemma. $`\mathrm{}`$

Let $`:t\mathrm{\Lambda }_t`$ be a smooth path of Lagrangian submanifolds. We define the derivative of this path at time $`t`$ by

$$_t\mathrm{\Lambda }_t:=\iota _{t}^{}{}_{}{}^{}\alpha _t,$$

where the path $`𝒳:t\iota _t`$ is chosen such that $`\iota _t(L)=\mathrm{\Lambda }_t`$ for every $`t`$ and $`\alpha _t`$ is defined by (3). The proof of Lemma 2.1 shows that the $`1`$-form $`\beta _t=\iota _{t}^{}{}_{}{}^{}\alpha _t\mathrm{\Omega }^1(\mathrm{\Lambda }_t)`$ is closed and is independent of the choice of the lift $`t\iota _t`$ used to define it.

We wish to study Hamiltonian isotopies of Lagrangian submanifolds. This corresponds to paths in $``$ that are tangent to the subbundle

$$=\left\{(\mathrm{\Lambda },\beta )T\right|\mathrm{\Lambda },\beta \mathrm{\Omega }^1(\mathrm{\Lambda })\text{ is exact}\}.$$

Abstractly, one can think of $``$ as a distribution on $``$. It follows from Weinstein’s Lagrangian neighbourhood theorem that this distribution is integrable. We shall see that the leaf through $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_0`$ consists of all Lagrangian submanifolds of $`M`$ that are Hamiltonian isotopic to $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_0`$ . To be more precise, let $`\times M:(t,z)H_t(z)`$ be a smooth Hamiltonian function and denote by $`\times MM:(t,z)\psi _t(z)`$ the Hamiltonian isotopy generated by $`H`$ via

$$\frac{d}{dt}\psi _t=X_t\psi _t,\iota (X_t)\omega =dH_t,\psi _0=\mathrm{id}.$$
(4)
###### Lemma 2.2

Let $`:t\mathrm{\Lambda }_t`$ be a smooth path of Lagrangian submanifolds and $`\psi _t`$ be a Hamiltonian isotopy on $`M`$ generated by the Hamiltonian functions $`H_t:M`$ via (4). Then $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_t=\psi _t(\mathrm{\Lambda }_0)`$ for every $`t`$ if and only if

$$_t\mathrm{\Lambda }_t=dH_t|_{\mathrm{\Lambda }_t}$$

for every $`t`$.

Proof:  Choose a smooth path $`𝒳:t\iota _t`$ such that $`\iota _t(L)=\mathrm{\Lambda }_t`$ for every $`t`$ and let $`\alpha _t\mathrm{\Omega }^1(L)`$ be defined by (3). Then $`_t\mathrm{\Lambda }_t=dH_t|_{\mathrm{\Lambda }_t}`$ if and only if $`d(H_t\iota _t)=\alpha _t`$. It follows from the definitions that this is equivalent to

$$X_t(\iota _t(q))_t\iota _t(q)\mathrm{im}d\iota _t(q)$$

for all $`t`$ and all $`q`$. This means that there exists a smooth family of vector fields $`\xi _t\mathrm{Vect}(L)`$ such that

$$X_t\iota _t=_t\iota _t+d\iota _t\xi _t.$$

Equivalently, $`\psi _t\iota _0=\iota _t\varphi _t,`$ where the isotopy $`\varphi _t\mathrm{Diff}(L)`$ is generated by $`\xi _t`$ via $`_t\varphi _t=\xi _t\varphi _t`$ and $`\varphi _0=\mathrm{id}.`$ This proves the lemma. $`\mathrm{}`$

The previous lemma shows that every path in $``$ that is generated by a Hamiltonian isotopy is tangent to $``$. The converse is proved next.

###### Lemma 2.3

A smooth path $`[0,1]:t\mathrm{\Lambda }_t`$ is tangent to $``$ if and only if there exists a Hamiltonian isotopy $`t\psi _t`$ such that $`\psi _t(\mathrm{\Lambda }_0)=\mathrm{\Lambda }_t`$ for every $`t`$.

Proof:  The “if” part was proved in Lemma 2.2. Suppose that the path $`t\mathrm{\Lambda }_t`$ is tangent to $``$. Choose a smooth function $`[0,1]𝒳:t\iota _t`$ such that $`\iota _t(L)=\mathrm{\Lambda }_t`$ for every $`t`$ and let $`\alpha _t\mathrm{\Omega }^1(L)`$ be defined by (3). By assumption, $`\alpha _t`$ is exact for every $`t`$. Fix a smooth path $`q_tL`$ and, for every $`t`$, choose $`h_t:L`$ such that

$$dh_t=\alpha _t,h_t(q_t)=0.$$

Then the function $`\times L:(t,q)h_t(q)`$ is smooth. We construct a smooth function $`[0,1]\times M:(t,z)H_t(z)`$ such that

$$H_t\iota _t=h_t.$$
(5)
Choose an almost complex structure $`J`$ on $`M`$ that is compatible with $`\omega `$. Let $`\epsilon >0`$ be so small that, for every $`t[0,1]`$, the map

$$T\mathrm{\Lambda }_tM:(z,v)\mathrm{exp}_z(Jv)$$

restricts to a diffeomorphism from the $`\epsilon `$-neighbourhood of the zero section in $`T\mathrm{\Lambda }_t`$ onto the open neighbourhood

$$U_t:=\left\{\mathrm{exp}_z(Jv)\right|z\mathrm{\Lambda }_t,vT_z\mathrm{\Lambda }_t,|v|<\epsilon \}$$

of $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_t`$ in $`M`$. Choose a cutoff function $`\rho :[0,\epsilon ][0,1]`$ such that $`\rho (r)=1`$ for $`r<\epsilon /3`$ and $`\rho (r)=0`$ for $`r>2\epsilon /3`$. Define $`H_t:M`$ by

$$H_t(\mathrm{exp}_z(Jv)):=\rho (|v|)h_t\iota _{t}^{}{}_{}{}^{1}(z)$$

for $`z\mathrm{\Lambda }_t`$ and $`vT_z\mathrm{\Lambda }_t`$ with $`|v|<\epsilon `$, and by $`H_t(z):=0`$ for $`zMU_t`$. Then $`H_t`$ satisfies (5) and hence

$$dH_t|_{\mathrm{\Lambda }_t}=\iota _{t}^{}{}_{}{}^{}dh_t=\iota _{t}^{}{}_{}{}^{}\alpha _t=_t\mathrm{\Lambda }_t.$$

By Lemma 2.2, the Hamiltonian isotopy $`\psi _t`$ generated by $`H_t`$ satisfies $`\psi _t(\mathrm{\Lambda }_0)=\mathrm{\Lambda }_t`$ for every $`t`$. This proves the lemma. $`\mathrm{}`$

###### Remark 2.4

The Hamiltonian functions constructed in Lemma 2.3 satisfy

$$\mathrm{max}H_t=\mathrm{max}h_t,\mathrm{min}H_t=\mathrm{min}h_t$$
(6)
for every $`t`$. With a slightly more sophisticated argument one can show that the Hamiltonian functions can be chosen such that the Hamiltonian vector fields $`X_t`$ satisfy $`_t\iota _t=X_t\iota _t`$ and hence the resulting Hamiltonian isotopy satisfies

$$\psi _t\iota _0=\iota _t.$$
(7)
However, in general there does not exist a Hamiltonian isotopy that satisfies both (6) and (7).

###### Lemma 2.5

Let $`:t\mathrm{\Lambda }_t`$ be a smooth path of Lagrangian submanifolds. Let $`\mathrm{Diff}(M,\omega ):t\psi _t`$ be a symplectic isotopy and define $`\beta _t\mathrm{\Omega }^1(M)`$ by $`\beta _t:=\iota (Y_t)\omega ,`$ where $`_t\psi _t=Y_t\psi _t.`$ Then $`\beta _t`$ is closed and the path $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_t^{}:=\psi _{t}^{}{}_{}{}^{1}(\mathrm{\Lambda }_t)`$ satisfies

$$_t\mathrm{\Lambda }_t^{}=\psi _{t}^{}{}_{}{}^{}\left(_t\mathrm{\Lambda }_t\beta _t|_{\mathrm{\Lambda }_t}\right).$$

Proof:  Choose a lift $`𝒳:t\iota _t`$ of $`t\mathrm{\Lambda }_t`$ and denote

$$\iota _t^{}:=\psi _{t}^{}{}_{}{}^{1}\iota _t,\alpha _t:=\omega (_t\iota _t,d\iota _t),\alpha _t^{}:=\omega (_t\iota _t^{},d\iota _t^{}).$$

Then $`\alpha _t^{}=\alpha _t\iota _{t}^{}{}_{}{}^{}\beta _t`$ and hence

$$_t\mathrm{\Lambda }_t^{}=\iota _{t}^{}{}_{}{}^{}\alpha _t^{}=\psi _{t}^{}{}_{}{}^{}\iota _{t}^{}{}_{}{}^{}\alpha _t^{}=\psi _{t}^{}{}_{}{}^{}\left(\iota _{t}^{}{}_{}{}^{}\alpha _t\beta _t\right)=\psi _{t}^{}{}_{}{}^{}\left(_t\mathrm{\Lambda }_t\beta _t\right)$$

as claimed. $`\mathrm{}`$

The subbundle $`T`$ carries a natural norm. Following Hofer  we define the norm of an exact $`1`$-form $`\alpha =dh\mathrm{\Omega }^1(\mathrm{\Lambda })`$ by

$$dh:=\mathrm{max}h\mathrm{min}h.$$

This norm gives rise to a distance function on each leaf of the foliation determined by $``$. Let $`_0`$ be such a leaf. By Lemma 2.3, $`_0`$ is the Hamiltonian isotopy class of any Lagrangian submanifold $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_0`$. Let $`[0,1]_0:t\mathrm{\Lambda }_t`$ be a smooth path in $`_0`$. The length of this path is defined by

$$\mathrm{}(\{\mathrm{\Lambda }_t\}):=_0^1_t\mathrm{\Lambda }_t𝑑t.$$

Lemma 2.3 and Remark 2.4 show that

$$\mathrm{}(\{\mathrm{\Lambda }_t\})=\underset{\psi _t(\mathrm{\Lambda }_0)=\mathrm{\Lambda }_t}{inf}\mathrm{}(\{\psi _t\}),$$
(8)
where the infimum runs over all Hamiltonian isotopies $`t\psi _t`$ that satisfy $`\psi _t(\mathrm{\Lambda }_0)=\mathrm{\Lambda }_t`$ for all $`t`$ and $`\mathrm{}(\{\psi _t\})`$ denotes the Hofer length (cf. ).

Now let $`\mathrm{\Lambda },\mathrm{\Lambda }^{}_0`$ and denote by $`𝒫(\mathrm{\Lambda },\mathrm{\Lambda }^{})`$ the space of all smooth paths $`[0,1]_0:t\mathrm{\Lambda }_t`$ that connect $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_0=\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ to $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_1=\mathrm{\Lambda }^{}`$. The distance between $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ and $`\mathrm{\Lambda }^{}`$ is defined by

$$d(\mathrm{\Lambda },\mathrm{\Lambda }^{}):=\underset{\{\mathrm{\Lambda }_t\}𝒫(\mathrm{\Lambda },\mathrm{\Lambda }^{})}{inf}\mathrm{}(\{\mathrm{\Lambda }_t\}).$$
(9)
It follows immediately from (8) that

$$d(\mathrm{\Lambda },\mathrm{\Lambda }^{})=\underset{\psi (\mathrm{\Lambda })=\mathrm{\Lambda }^{}}{inf}d(\mathrm{id},\psi )$$
(10)
where the infimum runs over all Hamiltonian symplectomorphisms $`\psi `$ of $`M`$ that satisfy $`\psi (\mathrm{\Lambda })=\mathrm{\Lambda }^{}`$ and $`d(\mathrm{id},\psi )`$ denotes the Hofer distance (cf. ). The function (9) is obviously nonnegative, symmetric, and satisfies the triangle inequality. That it defines a metric is a deep theorem due to Chekanov .

###### Theorem 2.6 (Chekanov)

If $`\mathrm{\Lambda }\mathrm{\Lambda }^{}`$ then $`d(\mathrm{\Lambda },\mathrm{\Lambda }^{})>0`$.

###### Remark 2.7

In  Milinković studied geodesics in the space of Lagrangian submanifolds. Generalizing a result by Bialy and Polterovich , he proved that the distance of two exact Lagrangian submanifolds $`\mathrm{\Lambda }=\mathrm{graph}(dS)`$ and $`\mathrm{\Lambda }^{}=\mathrm{graph}(dS^{})`$ of the cotangent bundle $`T^{}L`$ is given by

$$d(\mathrm{\Lambda },\mathrm{\Lambda }^{})=d(SS^{}).$$

## 3 Invariants of Lagrangian loops

In this section we shall consider exact loops of Lagrangian submanifolds. In the terminology of the previous section this corresponds to loops inside a leaf of the foliation of $``$ determined by $``$. We shall construct three invariants of Hamiltonian isotopy classes of such loops and study the relations between them.

### 3.1 The minimal length

Continue the notation of Section 2. A Lagrangian loop in $`M`$ is a smooth function $`:t\mathrm{\Lambda }_t`$ such that

$$\mathrm{\Lambda }_{t+1}=\mathrm{\Lambda }_t$$

for all $`t`$. Such a loop determines a subset $`\mathrm{\Lambda }S^1\times M`$ defined by

$$\mathrm{\Lambda }:=\left\{(e^{2\pi it},z)\right|t,z\mathrm{\Lambda }_t\}.$$
(11)
Note that a loop $`:t\mathrm{\Lambda }_t`$ is smooth if and only if this set $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ is a smooth submanifold of $`S^1\times M`$. We shall frequently identify the loop $`:t\mathrm{\Lambda }_t`$ with the corresponding submanifold $`\mathrm{\Lambda }S^1\times M`$.

A Lagrangian loop $`t\mathrm{\Lambda }_t`$ is called exact if it is tangent to $``$, i.e. $`_t\mathrm{\Lambda }_t\mathrm{\Omega }^1(\mathrm{\Lambda }_t)`$ is exact for every $`t`$. Two exact Lagrangian loops $`t\mathrm{\Lambda }_t`$ and $`t\mathrm{\Lambda }_t^{}`$ are called Hamiltonian isotopic if there exists a smooth function $`[0,1]\times :(s,t)\mathrm{\Lambda }_{s,t}`$ such that

$$\mathrm{\Lambda }_{0,t}=\mathrm{\Lambda }_t,\mathrm{\Lambda }_{1,t}=\mathrm{\Lambda }_t^{},$$

the map $`t\mathrm{\Lambda }_{s,t}`$ is an exact Lagrangian loop for every $`s`$, and $`_s\mathrm{\Lambda }_{s,t}\mathrm{\Omega }^1(\mathrm{\Lambda }_{s,t})`$ is exact for all $`s`$ and $`t`$. Here the function $`[0,1]\times :(s,t)\mathrm{\Lambda }_{s,t}`$ is called smooth if there exists a smooth function $`[0,1]\times \times LM:(s,t,q)\iota _{s,t}(q)`$ such that $`\iota _{s,t}(L)=\mathrm{\Lambda }_{s,t}`$ for all $`s`$ and $`t`$. Let $`\mathrm{\Lambda },\mathrm{\Lambda }^{}S^1\times M`$ be two exact Lagrangian loops. We write $`\mathrm{\Lambda }\mathrm{\Lambda }^{}`$ iff $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ is Hamiltonian isotopic to $`\mathrm{\Lambda }^{}`$. A Hamiltonian isotopy class corresponds to a component in the free loop space of a leaf $`_0`$ of the foliation determined by $``$. To every such Hamiltonian isotopy class we assign the real number

$$\nu (\mathrm{\Lambda }):=\underset{\mathrm{\Lambda }^{}\mathrm{\Lambda }}{inf}\mathrm{}(\mathrm{\Lambda }^{}).$$

So $`\nu (\mathrm{\Lambda })`$ is obtained by minimizing the Hofer length over all exact Lagrangian loops that are Hamiltonian isotopic to $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$.

### 3.2 The relative K-area

Following Polterovich  we introduce the notion of relative K-area. This invariant is defined in terms of Hamiltonian connections on the symplectic fibre bundle $`D\times MD`$ that preserve the subbundle $`\mathrm{\Lambda }D\times M`$ defined by (11). Here $`D`$ denotes the closed unit disc. We begin by recalling the basic notions of symplectic connections and curvature (cf. ). Think of a connection on $`D\times M`$ as a horizontal distribution. Any such connection is determined by a connection $`2`$-form on $`D\times M`$ of the form

$$\tau =\omega +\alpha dx+\beta dy+fdxdy$$

where $`\alpha =\alpha _{x,y}\mathrm{\Omega }^1(M)`$, $`\beta =\beta _{x,y}\mathrm{\Omega }^1(M)`$, and $`f=f_{x,y}\mathrm{\Omega }^0(M)`$ depend smoothly on $`x+iyD`$. The horizontal subspace is the $`\tau `$-orthogonal complement of the vertical subspace. Explicitly, the horizontal lifts of $`/x`$ and $`/y`$ at $`(x+iy,z)D\times M`$ are the vectors $`(1,X_{x,y}(z))`$ and $`(i,Y_{x,y}(z))`$, respectively, where the vector fields $`X=X_{x,y},Y=Y_{x,y}\mathrm{Vect}(M)`$ are defined by

$$\iota (X)\omega =\alpha ,\iota (Y)\omega =\beta .$$

Thus the connection associated to $`\tau `$ is independent of $`f`$. It is called symplectic if $`\alpha _{x,y}`$ and $`\beta _{x,y}`$ are closed for all $`x+iyD`$, and Hamiltonian if $`\alpha _{x,y}`$ and $`\beta _{x,y}`$ are exact for all $`x+iyD`$ and $`\tau `$ is closed.<sup>1</sup><sup>1</sup>1 In  a connection is called Hamiltonian if parallel transport along every loop in the base is a Hamiltonian symplectomorphism. In the case of a simply connected base this is equivalent to the existence of a closed $`2`$-form $`\tau `$ that represents this connection. In contrast, we call a connection Hamiltonian if parallel transport along every path is a Hamiltonian symplectomorphism. This notion only makes sense when the bundle in question is equipped with a trivialization.  Thus a Hamiltonian connection $`2`$-form has the form

$$\tau =\omega +dFdx+dGdy+(_xG_yF+c)dxdy,$$
(12)
where $`F,G:D\times M`$ and $`c:D`$ are smooth maps such that the functions $`F_{x,y}=F(x+iy,)`$ and $`G_{x,y}=G(x+iy,)`$ have mean value zero:

$$_MF_{x,y}\omega ^n=_MG_{x,y}\omega ^n=0.$$

In (12) the $`d`$ in $`dF`$ denotes the differential on $`M`$, i.e. $`dF`$ denotes the smooth family $`x+iydF_{x,y}`$ of $`1`$-forms on $`M`$, and similarly for $`dG`$. We shall only consider Hamiltonian connections with the property that parallel transport along the boundary preserves $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$.

###### Lemma 3.1

Let $`\tau `$ be a Hamiltonian connection $`2`$-form on $`D\times M`$ of the form (12) and denote

$$H_t:=2\pi \mathrm{sin}(2\pi t)F_{\mathrm{cos}(2\pi t),\mathrm{sin}(2\pi t)}+2\pi \mathrm{cos}(2\pi t)G_{\mathrm{cos}(2\pi t),\mathrm{sin}(2\pi t)}.$$
(13)
Let $`:t\mathrm{\Lambda }_t`$ be an exact Lagrangian loop, let $`\mathrm{\Lambda }D\times M`$ be defined by (11), and choose a smooth function $`\iota :\times LM`$ such that $`\iota _t(L)=\mathrm{\Lambda }_t`$, where $`\iota _t:=\iota (t,)`$. Then the following are equivalent.

Parallel transport of $`\tau `$ along the boundary preserves $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$.

$`\iota ^{}\tau =0`$.

$`dH_t|_{\mathrm{\Lambda }_t}=_t\mathrm{\Lambda }_t`$ for every $`t`$.

Proof:  The parallel transport of $`\tau `$ along a curve $`tx(t)+iy(t)`$ is determined by the Hamiltonian functions

$$H_t=\dot{x}(t)F_{x(t),y(t)}+\dot{y}(t)G_{x(t),y(t)}$$

via (4). The functions $`H_t`$ in (13) correspond to the path $`te^{2\pi it}`$. By Lemma 2.2, the Hamiltonian isotopy determined by $`H_t`$ preserves $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ if and only if $`dH_t|_{\mathrm{\Lambda }_t}=_t\mathrm{\Lambda }_t`$ for every $`t`$. This shows that (i) is equivalent to (iii).

To prove the equivalence of (ii) and (iii) note that

$$\tau (_t\iota _t,d\iota _t)=\omega (_t\iota _tX_t\iota _t,d\iota _t),$$

where $`X_t\mathrm{Vect}(M)`$ denotes the Hamiltonian vector field of $`H_t`$ as in (4). The right hand side vanishes if and only if $`dH_t|_{\mathrm{\Lambda }_t}=_t\mathrm{\Lambda }_t`$ and the left hand side vanishes if and only if $`\iota ^{}\tau =0`$. This proves the lemma. $`\mathrm{}`$

For every exact Lagrangian loop $`:t\mathrm{\Lambda }_t`$ let us denote the set of Hamiltonian connections that preserve $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ by

$$𝒯(\mathrm{\Lambda })=\left\{\tau \mathrm{\Omega }^2(D\times M)\right|\tau \text{ has the form }(\text{12}),\tau |_{T\mathrm{\Lambda }}=0\}.$$

We shall prove in Lemma 3.2 below that this set is nonempty. Let $`:t\mathrm{\Lambda }_t^{}`$ be another exact Lagrangian loop. A diffeomorphism

$$\mathrm{\Psi }:(D\times M,\mathrm{\Lambda })(D\times M,\mathrm{\Lambda }^{})$$

is called a fibrewise (Hamiltonian) symplectomorphism if it has the form $`\mathrm{\Psi }(x+iy,z)=(x+iy,\psi _{x,y}(z)),`$ where $`\psi _{x,y}:MM`$ is a (Hamiltonian) symplectomorphism for all $`x,y`$. In the case $`\mathrm{\Lambda }=\mathrm{\Lambda }^{}`$ we denote by $`𝒢(\mathrm{\Lambda })`$ the group of fibrewise Hamiltonian symplectomorphisms of $`(D\times M,\mathrm{\Lambda })`$. This group acts on $`𝒯(\mathrm{\Lambda })`$ by $`\tau \mathrm{\Psi }^{}\tau `$. The curvature of a connection $`2`$-form $`\tau `$ of the form (12) is the function $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\tau :D\times M`$ defined by

$$\mathrm{\Omega }_\tau (x,y,z):=\{F_{x,y},G_{x,y}\}(z)+_yF_{x,y}(z)_xG_{x,y}(z)$$
(14)
for $`x+iyD`$ and $`zM`$. It is sometimes useful to think of the curvature as a $`2`$-form $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\tau dxdy`$ on $`D\times M`$ rather than a function.

###### Lemma 3.2

For every exact Lagrangian loop $`:t\mathrm{\Lambda }_t`$ the set $`𝒯(\mathrm{\Lambda })`$ is nonempty.

Two exact Lagrangian loops $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ and $`\mathrm{\Lambda }^{}`$ are Hamiltonian isotopic if and only if the corresponding pairs $`(D\times M,\mathrm{\Lambda })`$ and $`(D\times M,\mathrm{\Lambda }^{})`$ are fibrewise Hamiltonian symplectomorphic.

If $`\tau `$ is a Hamiltonian connection $`2`$-form on $`D\times M`$ and $`\mathrm{\Psi }`$ is a fibrewise Hamiltonian symplectomorphism of $`D\times M`$ then

$$\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{\Psi }^{}\tau }=\mathrm{\Omega }_\tau \mathrm{\Psi }.$$

Proof:  Let $`\varphi _t\mathrm{Diff}(L)`$ be defined by

$$\iota _{t+1}\varphi _t=\iota _t.$$

Since $`L`$ is connected there exists a smooth path $`L:tq_t`$ such that, for every $`t`$,

$$q_{t+1}=\varphi _t(q_t).$$
(15)
For example choose $`q_t`$ in the interval $`0t1`$ such that $`q_t=q_1`$ for $`1\epsilon t1`$ and $`q_t=\varphi _{t}^{}{}_{}{}^{1}(q_1)`$ for $`0t\epsilon `$. Then define $`q_t`$ for $`t`$ such that (15) is satisfied. Let $`h_t:L`$ be defined by

$$dh_t=\alpha _t:=\omega (_t\iota _t,d\iota _t),h_t(q_t)=0.$$

By (15), the function $`t\iota _t(q_t)`$ is $`1`$-periodic in $`t`$ and the proof of Lemma 2.1 shows that the $`1`$-forms $`\iota _{t}^{}{}_{}{}^{}\alpha _t`$ are $`1`$-periodic in $`t`$. Hence the functions $`h_t\iota _{t}^{}{}_{}{}^{1}`$ are $`1`$-periodic in $`t`$ and hence, so are the functions $`H_t`$ defined in the proof of Lemma 2.3. Now define

$$\stackrel{~}{H}_t(z):=H_t(z)\frac{_MH_t\omega ^n}{_M\omega ^n}.$$

Let $`\rho :[0,1][0,1]`$ be a smooth cutoff function such that $`\rho (r)=0`$ for $`r<\epsilon `$ and $`\rho (r)=1`$ for $`r>1\epsilon `$ and define $`\tau `$ by

$$\mathrm{\Phi }^{}\tau =\omega +\rho (r)d\stackrel{~}{H}_tdt+\dot{\rho }(r)\stackrel{~}{H}_tdrdt,$$
(16)
where $`\mathrm{\Phi }:[0,1]\times [0,1]\times MD\times M`$ is given by $`\mathrm{\Phi }(r,t,z)=(re^{2\pi it},z).`$ Explicitly, $`\tau `$ has the form (12) where $`F,G:D\times M`$ are given by

$$F_{x,y}=\frac{\mathrm{sin}(2\pi t)\rho (r)}{2\pi r}\stackrel{~}{H}_t,G_{x,y}=\frac{\mathrm{cos}(2\pi t)\rho (r)}{2\pi r}\stackrel{~}{H}_t,$$
(17)
for $`x+iy=re^{2\pi it}`$. These functions have mean value zero and satisfy (13) with $`H_t`$ replaced by $`\stackrel{~}{H}_t`$. Since $`H_t\iota _t=h_t`$ it follows as in the proof of Lemma 2.3 that

$$d\stackrel{~}{H}_t|_{\mathrm{\Lambda }_t}=dH_t|_{\mathrm{\Lambda }_t}=_t\mathrm{\Lambda }_t.$$

By Lemma 3.1, the parallel transport of $`\tau `$ along the boundary preserves $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$. Hence $`\tau `$ is an element of $`𝒯(\mathrm{\Lambda })`$. This proves (i).

We prove (ii). Assume first that there exists a fibrewise Hamiltonian symplectomorphism of the form $`\mathrm{\Psi }(x+iy,z)=(x+iy,\psi _{x+iy}(z))`$ such that

$$\psi _{e^{2\pi it}}(\mathrm{\Lambda }_t)=\mathrm{\Lambda }_t^{}$$

for every $`t`$. Define

$$\psi _{s,t}:=\psi _{se^{2\pi it}},\mathrm{\Lambda }_{s,t}:=\psi _{s,t}(\mathrm{\Lambda }_t)$$

for $`0s1`$ and $`t`$. Then $`t\mathrm{\Lambda }_{s,t}`$ is an exact Lagrangian loop for every $`s`$ and $`_s\mathrm{\Lambda }_{s,t}\mathrm{\Omega }^1(\mathrm{\Lambda }_{s,t})`$ is exact for all $`s`$ and $`t`$. Hence the Lagrangian loop $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_{1,t}=\mathrm{\Lambda }_t^{}`$ is Hamiltonian isotopic to $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_{0,t}=\psi _0(\mathrm{\Lambda }_t)`$. Since $`\psi _0`$ is a Hamiltonian symplectomorphism, the loop $`t\psi _0(\mathrm{\Lambda }_t)`$ is Hamiltonian isotopic to $`t\mathrm{\Lambda }_t`$. Conversely, suppose that $`t\mathrm{\Lambda }_t`$ and $`t\mathrm{\Lambda }_t^{}`$ are two exact Lagrangian loops that are Hamiltonian isotopic. Choose an exact isotopy $`(s,t)\mathrm{\Lambda }_{s,t}`$ such that $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_{0,t}=\mathrm{\Lambda }_t,`$ $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_{1,t}=\mathrm{\Lambda }_t^{},`$ and $`_s\mathrm{\Lambda }_{s,t}=0`$ for $`s1/2`$. As in the proof of (i), one can construct a smooth family of Hamiltonian functions $`H_{s,t}:M`$ such that

$$H_{s,t+1}=H_{s,t},dH_{s,t}|_{\mathrm{\Lambda }_{s,t}}=_s\mathrm{\Lambda }_{s,t}.$$

Define the Hamiltonian symplectomorphisms $`\psi _{s,t}:MM`$ by

$$_s\psi _{s,t}=X_{s,t}\psi _{s,t},\iota (X_{s,t})\omega =dH_{s,t},\psi _{0,t}=\mathrm{id}.$$

Then $`\psi _{s,t}=\mathrm{id}`$ for $`s1/2`$ and the required fibrewise Hamiltonian symplectomorphism is given by $`\mathrm{\Psi }(se^{2\pi it},z):=(se^{2\pi it},\psi _{s,t}(z))`$.

We prove (iii). Let $`\tau `$ be given by (12) and suppose that

$$\mathrm{\Psi }(x+iy,z)=(x+iy,\psi _{x,y}(z))$$

is a fibrewise Hamiltonian symplectomorphism. Choose smooth functions $`A,B:D\times M`$ such that the functions $`A_{x,y}:=A(x+iy,)`$ and $`B_{x,y}:=B(x+iy,)`$ have mean value zero and the Hamiltonian vector fields $`X_A=X_{A_{x,y}}`$ and $`X_B=X_{B_{x,y}}`$ satisfy

$$_x\psi =X_A\psi ,_y\psi =X_B\psi .$$
(18)
Then

$$\mathrm{\Psi }^{}\tau =\omega +d\stackrel{~}{F}dx+d\stackrel{~}{G}dy+(_x\stackrel{~}{G}_y\stackrel{~}{F}+c)dxdy,$$

where

$$\stackrel{~}{F}=(FA)\mathrm{\Psi },\stackrel{~}{G}=(GB)\mathrm{\Psi }.$$

Hence

$`\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{\Psi }^{}\tau }`$ $`=`$ $`_x\stackrel{~}{G}_y\stackrel{~}{F}\{\stackrel{~}{F},\stackrel{~}{G}\}`$
$`=`$ $`_x(GB)\mathrm{\Psi }+d(GB)X_A\mathrm{\Psi }`$
$`_y(FA)\mathrm{\Psi }d(FA)X_B\mathrm{\Psi }`$
$`\{(FA),(GB)\}\mathrm{\Psi }`$
$`=`$ $`(_xG_yF\{F,G\})\mathrm{\Psi }`$
$`(_xB_yA\{A,B\})\mathrm{\Psi }`$
$`=`$ $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\tau \mathrm{\Psi }.`$
The last equality follows from the definition of $`A`$ and $`B`$ in (18). This proves the lemma. $`\mathrm{}`$

The relative K-area of an exact Lagrangian loop $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ is defined by

$$\chi (\mathrm{\Lambda }):=\underset{\tau 𝒯(\mathrm{\Lambda })}{inf}\mathrm{\Omega }_\tau ,$$

where

$$\mathrm{\Omega }_\tau :=_D\left(\underset{zM}{\mathrm{max}}\mathrm{\Omega }_\tau (x,y,z)\underset{zM}{\mathrm{min}}\mathrm{\Omega }_\tau (x,y,z)\right)𝑑x𝑑y.$$

###### Theorem 3.3

For every exact Lagrangian loop $`\mathrm{\Lambda }S^1\times M`$

$$\chi (\mathrm{\Lambda })=\nu (\mathrm{\Lambda }).$$

Proof:  Let $`:t\mathrm{\Lambda }_t`$ be an exact Lagrangian loop. Let $`\tau \mathrm{\Omega }^2(D\times M)`$ be the connection $`2`$-form defined by (16) in the proof of Lemma 3.2, where the cutoff function $`\rho :[0,1][0,1]`$ is chosen to be nondecreasing. Then

$$\mathrm{\Phi }^{}(Fdx+Gdy)=\rho \stackrel{~}{H}_tdt,$$

where $`F,G:D\times M`$ are given by (17) and $`\mathrm{\Phi }(r,t,z)=(re^{2\pi it},z)`$. Taking the differential of this $`1`$-form on $`[0,1]^2\times M`$ we find

$$\mathrm{\Phi }^{}((_xG_yF)dxdy)=\dot{\rho }\stackrel{~}{H}_tdrdt.$$

Since $`\{F,G\}=0`$ and $`\mathrm{\Phi }^{}(dxdy)=2\pi rdrdt`$ we obtain

$$\mathrm{\Omega }_\tau (re^{2\pi it},z)=\frac{\dot{\rho }(r)}{2\pi r}\stackrel{~}{H}_t(z).$$

Moreover,

$$\stackrel{~}{H}_t=\underset{M}{\mathrm{max}}\stackrel{~}{H}_t\underset{M}{\mathrm{min}}\stackrel{~}{H}_t=\underset{\mathrm{\Lambda }_t}{\mathrm{max}}\stackrel{~}{H}_t\underset{\mathrm{\Lambda }_t}{\mathrm{min}}\stackrel{~}{H}_t,$$

and hence

$$\mathrm{\Omega }_\tau =_0^1_0^1\dot{\rho }(r)\stackrel{~}{H}_t𝑑r𝑑t=_0^1\stackrel{~}{H}_t𝑑t=\mathrm{}(\mathrm{\Lambda }).$$

This implies $`\chi (\mathrm{\Lambda })\mathrm{}(\mathrm{\Lambda }).`$ If $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ and $`\mathrm{\Lambda }^{}`$ are Hamiltonian isotopic then, by Lemma 3.2 (ii), there exists a fibrewise Hamiltonian symplectomorphism $`\mathrm{\Psi }`$ of $`D\times M`$ such that $`\mathrm{\Psi }(\mathrm{\Lambda })=\mathrm{\Lambda }^{}`$. Hence $`\tau 𝒯(\mathrm{\Lambda }^{})`$ if and only if $`\mathrm{\Psi }^{}\tau 𝒯(\mathrm{\Lambda })`$. By Lemma 3.2 (iii), $`\chi (\mathrm{\Lambda })=\chi (\mathrm{\Lambda }^{})\mathrm{}(\mathrm{\Lambda }^{}).`$ Hence $`\chi (\mathrm{\Lambda })\nu (\mathrm{\Lambda }).`$

We prove that $`\nu (\mathrm{\Lambda })\chi (\mathrm{\Lambda })`$. Let $`\tau 𝒯(\mathrm{\Lambda })`$. We shall construct an exact Lagrangian loop $`\mathrm{\Lambda }^{}`$ that is Hamiltonian isotopic to $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ and satisfies

$$\mathrm{}(\mathrm{\Lambda }^{})\mathrm{\Omega }_\tau .$$
(19)
Suppose that $`\tau `$ has the form (12). Since the function $`c`$ in (12) has no effect on the curvature we may assume, without loss of generality, that $`c0`$. Define $`H=H_{r,t}:M`$ and $`K=K_{r,t}:M`$ by the formula

$$\mathrm{\Phi }^{}\tau =\omega +dKdr+dHdt+(_rH_tK)drdt.$$

Explicitly,

$$K_{r,t}=\mathrm{cos}(2\pi t)F_{re^{2\pi it}}+\mathrm{sin}(2\pi t)G_{re^{2\pi it}},$$

$$H_{r,t}=2\pi r\mathrm{cos}(2\pi t)G_{re^{2\pi it}}2\pi r\mathrm{sin}(2\pi t)F_{re^{2\pi it}}.$$

Define the Hamiltonian symplectomorphisms $`\psi _{r,t}:MM`$ by

$$_r\psi _{r,t}=X_{K_{r,t}}\psi _{r,t},\psi _{0,t}=\mathrm{id}.$$

Then the loop

$$\mathrm{\Lambda }_t^{}=\psi _{1,t}^{}{}_{}{}^{1}(\mathrm{\Lambda }_t)$$

is evidently Hamiltonian isotopic to $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$. We shall prove that it satisfies (19). To see this, denote by $`\mathrm{\Psi }`$ the fibrewise Hamiltonian symplectomorphism of $`[0,1]^2\times M`$ given by

$$\mathrm{\Psi }(r,t,z)=(r,t,\psi _{r,t}(z)).$$

Then, as in the proof of Lemma 3.2, we obtain

$$\mathrm{\Psi }^{}\mathrm{\Phi }^{}\tau =\omega +dH^{}dt+_rH^{}drdt,$$

where $`H_{r,t}^{}=(H_{r,t}B_{r,t})\psi _{r,t}`$ and $`B_{r,t}:M`$ is defined by $`_t\psi _{r,t}=X_{B_{r,t}}\psi _{r,t}`$. These functions satisfy

$$\mathrm{\Omega }_\tau =_0^1_0^1_rH_{r,t}^{}𝑑r𝑑t,H_{0,t}^{}=0.$$

Moreover, by Lemma 2.5, we have

$`_t\mathrm{\Lambda }_t^{}`$ $`=`$ $`\psi _{1,t}^{}{}_{}{}^{}\left(_t\mathrm{\Lambda }_tdB_{1,t}|_{\mathrm{\Lambda }_t}\right)`$
$`=`$ $`\psi _{1,t}^{}{}_{}{}^{}(dH_{1,t}|_{\mathrm{\Lambda }_t})d(B_{1,t}\psi _{1,t})|_{\mathrm{\Lambda }_t^{}}`$
$`=`$ $`dH_{1,t}^{}|_{\mathrm{\Lambda }_t^{}}.`$
Hence the length of $`\mathrm{\Lambda }^{}`$ is given by

$`\mathrm{}(\mathrm{\Lambda }^{})`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle _0^1}\left(\underset{\mathrm{\Lambda }_t^{}}{\mathrm{max}}H_{1,t}^{}\underset{\mathrm{\Lambda }_t^{}}{\mathrm{min}}H_{1,t}^{}\right)𝑑t`$
$``$ $`{\displaystyle _0^1}\left(\underset{M}{\mathrm{max}}H_{1,t}^{}\underset{M}{\mathrm{min}}H_{1,t}^{}\right)𝑑t`$
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle _0^1}\left(\underset{M}{\mathrm{max}}\left({\displaystyle _0^1}_rH_{r,t}^{}dr\right)\underset{M}{\mathrm{min}}\left({\displaystyle _0^1}_rH_{r,t}^{}dr\right)\right)𝑑t`$
$``$ $`{\displaystyle _0^1}{\displaystyle _0^1}\left(\underset{M}{\mathrm{max}}_rH_{r,t}^{}\underset{M}{\mathrm{min}}_rH_{r,t}^{}\right)𝑑r𝑑t`$
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle _0^1}{\displaystyle _0^1}_rH_{r,t}^{}𝑑r𝑑t`$
$`=`$ $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\tau .`$
Thus we have proved that for every $`\tau 𝒯(\mathrm{\Lambda })`$ there exists an exact Lagrangian loop $`\mathrm{\Lambda }^{}`$ that is Hamiltonian isotopic to $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ and satisfies $`\mathrm{}(\mathrm{\Lambda }^{})\mathrm{\Omega }_\tau `$. Hence $`\chi (\mathrm{\Lambda })\nu (\mathrm{\Lambda })`$ and this proves the theorem. $`\mathrm{}`$

### 3.3 The non-symplectic interval

Let $`\mathrm{\Lambda }D\times M`$ be an exact Lagrangian loop and $`\tau 𝒯(\mathrm{\Lambda })`$ be a Hamiltonian connection $`2`$-form. Since $`\tau `$ is closed and vanishes on $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ (see Lemma 3.1) it determines a relative cohomology class

$$[\tau ]H^2(D\times M,\mathrm{\Lambda };).$$

Let $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ be a compact oriented Riemann surface with (possibly empty) boundary $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$. A smooth map $`v:(\mathrm{\Sigma },\mathrm{\Sigma })(D\times M,\mathrm{\Lambda })`$ determines a $`2`$-dimensional relative homology class

$$[v]:=v_{}[\mathrm{\Sigma }]H_2(D\times M,\mathrm{\Lambda };).$$

The pairing of this class with $`[\tau ]`$ is given by

$$[\tau ],[v]=_\mathrm{\Sigma }v^{}\tau .$$

Since every 2-dimensional integral homology class of the pair $`(D\times M,\mathrm{\Lambda })`$ can be represented by a smooth map $`v`$ as above, the cohomology class $`[\tau ]`$ is uniquely determined by these pairings. Define $`\sigma H^2(D\times M,\mathrm{\Lambda };)`$ by

$$\sigma ,[v]=\mathrm{deg}(\pi v)$$
(20)
for every $`v:(\mathrm{\Sigma },\mathrm{\Sigma })(D\times M,\mathrm{\Lambda })`$, where

$$\pi :(D\times M,\mathrm{\Lambda })(D,D)$$

denotes the obvious projection. In (20) the degree of a smooth map $`v_0:(\mathrm{\Sigma },\mathrm{\Sigma })(D,D)`$ is understood as the degree of its restriction to the boundary. It agrees with the number of preimages of an interior regular value, counted with appropriate signs (cf. Milnor ). Note that

$$\sigma =\frac{1}{\pi }[dxdy]$$

and hence $`\sigma `$ agrees with the pullback of the positive integral generator of $`H^2(D,D;)`$ under the projection $`\pi `$.

###### Lemma 3.4

Let $`\tau _0,\tau _1𝒯(\mathrm{\Lambda })`$. Then there exists a constant $`s=s(\tau _1,\tau _0)`$ such that

$$[\tau _1][\tau _0]=s\sigma .$$

Proof:  Let $`\tau _i`$ be given by (12) with $`F,G,c`$ replaced by $`F_i,G_i,c_i`$ for $`i=0,1`$. Denote

$$F:=F_1F_0,G:=G_1G_0,c:=c_1c_0,$$

and let $`H_t:M`$ be defined by (13). Since $`\tau _0,\tau _1𝒯(\mathrm{\Lambda })`$ it follows from Lemma 3.1 that there exists a function $`h:/`$ such that

$$H_t|_{\mathrm{\Lambda }_t}h(t)$$

for every $`t`$. We shall prove that the required identity holds with

$$s:=_0^1h(t)𝑑t+_Dc𝑑x𝑑y.$$

To see this note that, by (13),

$$(Fdx+Gdy)|_\mathrm{\Lambda }=\pi ^{}\alpha _h.$$
(21)
where $`\alpha _h\mathrm{\Omega }^1(S^1)`$ denotes the pushforward of the $`1`$-form $`hdt\mathrm{\Omega }^1(/)`$ under the diffeomorphisms $`/S^1:[t]e^{2\pi it}`$. Let $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ be a compact oriented Riemann surface and $`v:\mathrm{\Sigma }D\times M`$ be a smooth function such that $`v(\mathrm{\Sigma })\mathrm{\Lambda }`$. Denote $`v_0:=\pi v:(\mathrm{\Sigma },\mathrm{\Sigma })(D,D)`$. Then

$`{\displaystyle _\mathrm{\Sigma }}v^{}(\tau _1\tau _0)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle _\mathrm{\Sigma }}v^{}\left(dFdx+dGdy+(_xG_yF+c)dxdy\right)`$
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle _\mathrm{\Sigma }}v^{}(Fdx+Gdy)+{\displaystyle _\mathrm{\Sigma }}v_{0}^{}{}_{}{}^{}(cdxdy)`$
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle _\mathrm{\Sigma }}v_{0}^{}{}_{}{}^{}\alpha _h+{\displaystyle _\mathrm{\Sigma }}v_{0}^{}{}_{}{}^{}(cdxdy)`$
$`=`$ $`s\mathrm{deg}(v_0).`$
The penultimate equality follows from (21) and the last from the identities

$$_\mathrm{\Sigma }v_{0}^{}{}_{}{}^{}\alpha _h=\mathrm{deg}(v_0)_{S^1}\alpha _h$$
(22)
and

$$_\mathrm{\Sigma }v_{0}^{}{}_{}{}^{}(cdxdy)=\mathrm{deg}(v_0)_Dc𝑑xdy.$$
(23)
Here (22) is the degree theorem for maps between compact $`1`$-manifolds and (23) is the degree theorem for maps between $`2`$-manifolds with boundary. More precisely, if the function $`c:D`$ has mean value zero then there exists a $`1`$-form $`\alpha \mathrm{\Omega }^1(D)`$ such that $`d\alpha =cdxdy`$ and $`\alpha |_{TS^1}=0.`$ This implies that the left hand side of (23) vanishes. Hence it suffices to establish (23) for constant functions $`c`$ and this reduces to (22). This proves the lemma. $`\mathrm{}`$

Let $`\tau _0𝒯(\mathrm{\Lambda })`$. We shall now address the question which cohomology classes $`[\tau _0]+s\sigma `$ can be represented by nondegenerate Hamiltonian connection $`2`$-forms. Such a $`2`$-form is a symplectic form on $`D\times M`$ with respect to which $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ is a Lagrangian submanifold. Denote

$$𝒯^\pm (\mathrm{\Lambda }):=\{\tau 𝒯(\mathrm{\Lambda })|\pm \tau ^{n+1}>0\}.$$

Here the inequality $`\tau ^{n+1}>0`$ means that $`\tau ^{n+1}=fdxdy\omega ^n`$, where $`f:D\times M`$ is a positive function. For $`\tau _0𝒯(\mathrm{\Lambda })`$ we define

$$\epsilon ^+(\tau _0,\mathrm{\Lambda }):=inf\left\{s(\tau ,\tau _0)\right|\tau 𝒯^+(\mathrm{\Lambda })\},$$

$$\epsilon ^{}(\tau _0,\mathrm{\Lambda }):=sup\left\{s(\tau ,\tau _0)\right|\tau 𝒯^{}(\mathrm{\Lambda })\}.$$

The proof of Theorem 3.5 below shows that the class $`[\tau _0]+s\sigma `$ can be represented by a symplectic form $`\tau 𝒯^\pm (\mathrm{\Lambda })`$ for $`\pm s`$ sufficiently large and hence $`\pm \epsilon ^\pm (\tau _0,\mathrm{\Lambda })<\mathrm{}`$. Evidently, $`\epsilon ^\pm (\tau _1,\mathrm{\Lambda })\epsilon ^\pm (\tau _0,\mathrm{\Lambda })=s(\tau _1,\tau _0)`$. Hence the number

$$\epsilon (\mathrm{\Lambda }):=\epsilon ^+(\tau _0,\mathrm{\Lambda })\epsilon ^{}(\tau _0,\mathrm{\Lambda })$$

is independent of the connection $`2`$-form $`\tau _0𝒯(\mathrm{\Lambda })`$ used to define it. This number is called the width of the nonsymplectic interval.

###### Theorem 3.5

For every exact Lagrangian loop $`\mathrm{\Lambda }D\times M`$

$$\epsilon (\mathrm{\Lambda })\chi (\mathrm{\Lambda }).$$

Proof:  Let $`:t\mathrm{\Lambda }_t`$ be an exact Lagrangian loop and $`F,G:D\times M`$ be smooth functions such that the functions $`H_t:M`$ defined by (13) satisfy $`dH_t|_{\mathrm{\Lambda }_t}=_t\mathrm{\Lambda }_t`$ for every $`t`$. For every smooth function $`c:D`$ let $`\tau _c𝒯(\mathrm{\Lambda })`$ be given by (12). In particular, $`\tau _0`$ is given by (12) with $`c=0`$. We shall prove that

$$\epsilon ^+(\tau _0,\mathrm{\Lambda })_D\underset{zM}{\mathrm{max}}\mathrm{\Omega }_{\tau _0}(x,y,z)𝑑x𝑑y,$$
(24)
$$\epsilon ^{}(\tau _0,\mathrm{\Lambda })_D\underset{zM}{\mathrm{min}}\mathrm{\Omega }_{\tau _0}(x,y,z)𝑑x𝑑y.$$
(25)
To see this, note that

$$ndFdG\omega ^{n1}=\{F,G\}\omega ^n$$

and hence

$$\begin{array}{ccc}\hfill \tau ^{n+1}& =& (n+1)(_xG_yF+c)dxdy\omega ^n\hfill \\ & & +n(n+1)dFdxdGdy\omega ^{n1}\hfill \\ & =& (n+1)(_xG_yF\{F,G\}+c)dxdy\omega ^n\hfill \\ & =& (n+1)(c\mathrm{\Omega }_{\tau _0})dxdy\omega ^n.\hfill \end{array}$$
(26)
This shows that $`\tau _c`$ is nondegenerate if and only if $`c(x,y)\mathrm{\Omega }_{\tau _0}(x,y,z)`$ for all $`(x+iy,z)D\times M`$. Fix a number

$$s>_D\underset{zM}{\mathrm{max}}\mathrm{\Omega }_{\tau _0}(x,y,z)𝑑x𝑑y.$$

Choose a smooth function $`c:D`$ such that

$$c(x,y)>\underset{zM}{\mathrm{max}}\mathrm{\Omega }_{\tau _0}(x,y,z)$$

for all $`x+iyD`$ and

$$_Dc𝑑x𝑑y=s.$$

Then $`\tau _c`$ is nondegenerate and represents the class $`[\tau _c]=[\tau _0]+s\sigma .`$ This proves (24) and (25) follows from a similar argument. It follows from (24) and (25) that

$`\epsilon (\mathrm{\Lambda })`$ $`=`$ $`\epsilon ^+(\tau _0,\mathrm{\Lambda })\epsilon ^{}(\tau _0,\mathrm{\Lambda })`$
$``$ $`{\displaystyle _D}\left(\underset{zM}{\mathrm{max}}\mathrm{\Omega }_{\tau _0}(x,y,z)\underset{zM}{\mathrm{min}}\mathrm{\Omega }_{\tau _0}(x,y,z)\right)𝑑x𝑑y`$
$`=`$ $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{\tau _0}.`$
Since the curvature of $`\tau _0`$ is equal to the curvature of $`\tau _c`$ for every $`c`$ it follows that $`\epsilon (\mathrm{\Lambda })\mathrm{\Omega }_\tau `$ for every $`\tau 𝒯(\mathrm{\Lambda })`$ and hence $`\epsilon (\mathrm{\Lambda })\chi (\mathrm{\Lambda })`$. This proves the theorem. $`\mathrm{}`$

###### Remark 3.6

Let us denote

$$T(\mathrm{\Lambda }):=\left\{[\tau ]H^2(D\times M,\mathrm{\Lambda };)\right|\tau 𝒯(\mathrm{\Lambda })\}.$$
(27)
By Lemma 3.4, this set is a $`1`$-dimensional affine subspace of $`H^2(D\times M,\mathrm{\Lambda };)`$. Denote

$$T^\pm (\mathrm{\Lambda }):=\left\{[\tau ]\right|\tau 𝒯^\pm (\mathrm{\Lambda })\}.$$

These sets are open and connected. To prove connectedness, let $`\tau _i𝒯^+(\mathrm{\Lambda })`$ be given by (12) with $`F,G,c`$ replaced by $`F_i,G_i,c_i`$ for $`i=0,1`$. By (26), $`c_i>\mathrm{\Omega }_{\tau _i}`$. Assume without loss of generality that $`s(\tau _1,\tau _0)0`$. Then the path $`[0,1]T^+(\mathrm{\Lambda }):t[\tau _0]+ts(\tau _1,\tau _0)\sigma `$ connects $`[\tau _0]`$ with $`[\tau _1]`$. This shows that the sets $`T^\pm (\mathrm{\Lambda })`$ are connected. The complement $`T(\mathrm{\Lambda })(T^{}(\mathrm{\Lambda })T^+(\mathrm{\Lambda }))`$ is compact and connected. It can be expressed in the form

$$T(\mathrm{\Lambda })(T^{}(\mathrm{\Lambda })T^+(\mathrm{\Lambda }))=\left\{[\tau _0]+s\sigma \right|\epsilon ^{}(\tau _0,\mathrm{\Lambda })s\epsilon ^+(\tau _0,\mathrm{\Lambda })\}$$

for every $`\tau _0𝒯(\mathrm{\Lambda })`$. We do not know if this complement is always nonempty or, equivalently, if $`\epsilon (\mathrm{\Lambda })`$ is always nonnegative.

## 4 Loops on the 2-torus

Consider the torus $`M=𝕋^2=^2/^2`$ with the standard symplectic form

$$\omega =dxdy$$

and let $`\pi :^2𝕋^2`$ denote the projection. Let

$$B_r=\{(s,t)^2|s^2+t^2r^2\}$$

and suppose that $`S𝕋^2`$ is the image of an embedding $`B_1𝕋^2`$. Define

$$\mathrm{\Lambda }_t:=\mathrm{\Lambda }_t(S):=\left\{[x,y+t]\right|[x,y]S\}$$
(28)
(see Figure 1).

###### Theorem 4.1

Let $`S𝕋^2`$ be a closed embedded disc and $`t\mathrm{\Lambda }_t`$ be the exact Lagrangian loop defined by (28). Then

$$\nu (\mathrm{\Lambda })=\mathrm{area}(S).$$

Proof:  We prove that $`\nu (\mathrm{\Lambda })\mathrm{area}(S)`$. To see this, choose smooth functions $`x,y:`$ such that

$$x(\theta +1)=x(\theta ),y(\theta +1)=y(\theta ),$$

and the map $`\iota _t:/𝕋^2`$ defined by

$$\iota _t(\theta ):=[x(\theta ),y(\theta )+t]$$

is an embedding with $`\iota _t(/)=\mathrm{\Lambda }_t`$. Then

$$\alpha _t:=\omega (_t\iota _t,d\iota _t)=\dot{x}d\theta \mathrm{\Omega }^1(/).$$

Hence $`\alpha _t=dh_t`$ where $`h_t=x:/`$. Hence

$$_t\mathrm{\Lambda }_t=dh_t=\mathrm{max}x\mathrm{min}x$$

and this implies

$$\mathrm{}(\mathrm{\Lambda })=\mathrm{max}x\mathrm{min}x.$$

By Proposition A.1 in the appendix, two loops $`t\mathrm{\Lambda }_t(S)`$ and $`t\mathrm{\Lambda }_t(S^{})`$, associated to two embedded discs $`S,S^{}𝕋^2`$ via (28), are Hamiltonian isotopic if and only if $`S`$ and $`S^{}`$ have the same area. Now for every $`\delta >0`$ there exists an embedded disc $`S^{}`$ (as illustrated in Figure 2) such that

$$\mathrm{area}(S)=\mathrm{area}(S^{}),\mathrm{max}x^{}\mathrm{min}x^{}<\mathrm{area}(S)+\delta ,$$

where $`x^{},y^{}:/`$ are chosen such that the map $`\iota ^{}(\theta )=[x^{}(\theta ),y^{}(\theta )]`$ defines an embedding $`/𝕋^2`$ whose image is $`S^{}`$. Hence the length of the loop $`t\mathrm{\Lambda }_t(S^{})`$ is bounded above by $`\mathrm{area}(S)+\delta `$. Thus we have proved that

$$\nu (\mathrm{\Lambda })\mathrm{area}(S).$$

To show the reverse inequality let $`t\mathrm{\Lambda }_t^{}`$ be an exact Lagrangian loop that is Hamiltonian isotopic to $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$. Then

$$\mathrm{\Lambda }_0^{}=S^{},$$

where $`S^{}𝕋^2`$ is a smoothly embedded closed disc of the same area as $`S`$. Let $`\psi _t:𝕋^2𝕋^2`$ be a Hamiltonian isotopy such that

$$\psi _t(\mathrm{\Lambda }_0^{})=\mathrm{\Lambda }_t^{}.$$

We shall prove that

$$\mathrm{area}(S)\mathrm{}\left(\{\psi _t\}_{0t1}\right).$$
(29)
To see this, choose an embedded closed discs $`\stackrel{~}{S}^2`$ such that $`\pi (\stackrel{~}{S})=S^{}`$ and let $`\stackrel{~}{\psi }_t:^2^2`$ be a lift of $`\psi _t`$. Since $`\mathrm{\Lambda }^{}`$ is Hamiltonian isotopic to $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ we have $`\stackrel{~}{\psi }_{t+1}(\stackrel{~}{S})=\stackrel{~}{\psi }_t(\stackrel{~}{S})+(0,1)`$ and hence

$$\stackrel{~}{\psi }_1(\stackrel{~}{S})\stackrel{~}{S}=\mathrm{}.$$

Let $`\stackrel{~}{H}_t:^2`$ be the Hamiltonian functions that generate $`\stackrel{~}{\psi }_t`$ and have mean value zero over the fundamental domain $`[0,1]^2`$. Choose $`R>1`$ such that $`\stackrel{~}{\psi }_t(\stackrel{~}{S})B_R`$ for every $`t[0,1]`$ and let $`\beta :^2[0,1]`$ be a compactly supported cutoff function such that $`\beta |_{B_R}1`$. Then the functions

$$\widehat{H}_t:=\beta \stackrel{~}{H}_t$$

generate a compactly supported Hamiltonian isotopy $`\widehat{\psi }_t`$ of $`^2`$ that satisfies

$$\widehat{\psi }_1(\stackrel{~}{S})\stackrel{~}{S}=\mathrm{}.$$

Now it follows from the energy-capacity inequality in Hofer  that the displacement energy of $`\stackrel{~}{S}`$ is bounded below by the area. Hence

$$\mathrm{area}(\stackrel{~}{S})d(\mathrm{id},\widehat{\psi }_1)\mathrm{}(\{\widehat{\psi }_t\}_{0t1})=\mathrm{}(\{\psi _t\}_{0t1}).$$

Since

$$\mathrm{area}(\stackrel{~}{S})=\mathrm{area}(S^{})=\mathrm{area}(S),$$

this proves (29). It follows from (29) and (8) that

$$\mathrm{area}(S)\mathrm{}(\mathrm{\Lambda }^{})$$

for every exact Lagrangian loop $`\mathrm{\Lambda }^{}`$ that is Hamiltonian isotopic to $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$. Hence $`\mathrm{area}(S)\nu (\mathrm{\Lambda })`$. $`\mathrm{}`$

Theorem 4.1 shows that the invariant $`\nu (\mathrm{\Lambda })`$ is not necessarily invariant under Lagrangian isotopy, but only under exact Lagrangian isotopy. The techniques of proof are specific to the 2-dimensional case. To establish lower bounds for our invariants in higher dimensions we shall use existence theorems for pseudoholomorphic discs.

## 5 Relative Gromov invariants

Throughout we assume that our symplectic manifold $`(M,\omega )`$ is compact. The relative Gromov invariants of an exact Lagrangian loop $`\mathrm{\Lambda }D\times M`$ are defined in terms of holomorphic sections of the bundle $`D\times MD`$ with boundary values in $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$. Let us denote by $`\mathrm{Map}_\mathrm{\Lambda }(D,M)`$ the space of smooth functions $`u:DM`$ that satisfy $`u(e^{2\pi it})\mathrm{\Lambda }_t`$ for every $`t`$. The Maslov class is a function

$$\mu _\mathrm{\Lambda }:\mathrm{Map}_\mathrm{\Lambda }(D,M)$$

defined as follows. Given $`u\mathrm{Map}_\mathrm{\Lambda }(D,M)`$ choose a trivialization of the tangent bundle $`u^{}TM`$. Then the tangent spaces $`T_{u(e^{2\pi it})}\mathrm{\Lambda }_t`$ define a loop of Lagrangian subspaces in $`(^{2n},\omega _0)`$ and $`\mu _\mathrm{\Lambda }(u)`$ is defined as the Maslov index of this loop (cf. ). This integer is independent of the choice of the trivialization used to define it, and it depends only on the homology class of $`u`$ in $`H_2(D\times M,\mathrm{\Lambda };)`$. We shall assume throughout that the pair $`(M,\mathrm{\Lambda }_0)`$ is monotone, i.e. there exists a $`\lambda >0`$ such that, for every smooth map $`v\mathrm{Map}_{\mathrm{\Lambda }_0}(D,M)`$,

$$_Dv^{}\omega =\lambda \mu _{\mathrm{\Lambda }_0}(v).$$

Here $`\mu _{\mathrm{\Lambda }_0}`$ denotes the Maslov class corresponding to the constant loop $`t\mathrm{\Lambda }_0`$. The minimal Maslov number of the pair $`(M,\mathrm{\Lambda }_0)`$ is defined by

$$N:=inf\left\{\mu _{\mathrm{\Lambda }_0}(v)\right|v:(D,D)(M,\mathrm{\Lambda }_0),\mu _{\mathrm{\Lambda }_0}(v)>0\}.$$

We shall define relative Gromov invariants for every tuple $`𝐭=(t_1,\mathrm{},t_k)^k`$ with $`0t_1<\mathrm{}<t_k<1`$ and every class $`AH_2(D\times M,\mathrm{\Lambda };)`$ that satisfies $`n\pm \mu _\mathrm{\Lambda }(A)N2.`$ The invariants are homology classes

$$\mathrm{Gr}_{A,𝐭}^\pm (\mathrm{\Lambda })H_{n\pm \mu _\mathrm{\Lambda }(A)}(\mathrm{\Lambda }_𝐭;_2),$$

where $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_𝐭:=\mathrm{\Lambda }_{t_1}\times \mathrm{}\times \mathrm{\Lambda }_{t_k}`$. These homology classes arise from certain moduli spaces $`_A(\tau ,\pm J)`$ of (anti-)holomorphic sections of the bundle $`D\times M`$ with boundary values in $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ that represent the class $`A`$. The points $`(e^{2\pi it_1},\mathrm{},e^{2\pi it_k})`$ determine an evaluation map

$$\mathrm{ev}_𝐭:_A(\tau ,\pm J)\mathrm{\Lambda }_𝐭$$

and $`\mathrm{Gr}_{A,𝐭}^\pm (\mathrm{\Lambda })`$ is defined as the image of the fundamental cycle of $`_A(\tau ,\pm J)`$ under the induced homomorphism on homology. We shall work with almost complex structures on $`D\times M`$ that are compatible with the fibration. Every such structure is determined by a family of almost complex structures on $`M`$ and a connection $`2`$-form $`\tau 𝒯(\mathrm{\Lambda })`$.

### 5.1 J-holomorphic discs

Let $`\mathrm{\Lambda }S^1\times M`$ be an exact Lagrangian loop and $`\tau 𝒯(\mathrm{\Lambda })`$ be a Hamiltonian connection $`2`$-form that preserves $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$. Throughout we shall denote by $`𝒥(M,\omega )`$ the space of almost complex structures on $`TM`$ that are compatible with $`\omega `$. Let $`D𝒥(M,\omega ):(x,y)J_{x,y}`$ be a smooth family of such almost complex structures. Associated to the triple $`(\tau ,J,\mathrm{\Lambda })`$ there is a natural boundary value problem for smooth functions $`u:DM`$:

$$_xuX_F(u)+J(_yuX_G(u))=0,$$
(30)
$$u(e^{2\pi it})\mathrm{\Lambda }_t,t.$$
(31)
Here we abbreviate $`J=J_{x,y}`$, $`\tau `$ is given by (12), $`X_F=X_F(x,y,)\mathrm{Vect}(M)`$ denotes the Hamiltonian vector field of the function $`F=F(x,y,):M`$, and similarly for $`X_G`$. Following Gromov  we observe that the solutions of (30) can be thought of as pseudo-holomorphic curves in $`D\times M`$.

###### Remark 5.1

Consider the almost complex structure $`\stackrel{~}{J}`$ on $`D\times M`$ given by

$$\stackrel{~}{J}=\stackrel{~}{J}(\tau ,J):=\left(\begin{array}{ccc}0& 1& 0\\ 1& 0& 0\\ JX_F+X_G& X_FJX_G& J\end{array}\right).$$

Then $`u:DM`$ is a solution of (30) if and only if the function

$$\stackrel{~}{u}(x,y)=(x,y,u(x,y))$$
(32)
is a $`\stackrel{~}{J}`$-holomorphic curve in $`D\times M`$, i.e.

$$_x\stackrel{~}{u}+\stackrel{~}{J}_y\stackrel{~}{u}=0.$$

If $`\tau `$ is given by (12) then, for every $`\stackrel{~}{\zeta }=(\xi ,\eta ,\zeta )T_{x,y,z}(D\times M)`$,

$$\tau (\stackrel{~}{\zeta },\stackrel{~}{J}\stackrel{~}{\zeta })=\left|\zeta \xi X_F\eta X_G\right|^2+(c\mathrm{\Omega }_\tau )(\xi ^2+\eta ^2).$$

Hence $`\stackrel{~}{J}`$ is tamed by $`\tau `$ whenever $`\tau 𝒯^+(\mathrm{\Lambda })`$ (see (26)). If $`\tau 𝒯^{}(\mathrm{\Lambda })`$ then $`\stackrel{~}{J}(\tau ,J)`$ is tamed by $`\tau `$.

The energy of a solution $`u`$ of (30) is defined by

$$E(u):=_D\left|_xuX_F(u)\right|^2𝑑x𝑑y.$$

The next lemma shows that the solutions of (30) and (31) that represent a given homology class $`AH_2(D\times M,\mathrm{\Lambda };)`$ satisfy a uniform energy bound.

###### Lemma 5.2

Let $`u:DM`$ be a smooth solution of (30) and (31) and denote by $`AH_2(D\times M,\mathrm{\Lambda };)`$ the homology class represented by the map $`\stackrel{~}{u}:DD\times M`$ defined by (32). Let $`c:D`$ be the function in (12). Then

$$E(u)=[\tau ],A+_D\left(\mathrm{\Omega }_\tau (x,y,u)c(x,y)\right)𝑑x𝑑y.$$

Proof:  We compute

$`E(u)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle _D}\omega (_xuX_F(u),_yuX_G(u))𝑑x𝑑y`$
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle _D}\left(\omega (_xu,_yu)dF(u)_yu+dG(u)_xu+\{F,G\}(u)\right)𝑑x𝑑y`$
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle _D}\left(\omega (_xu,_yu)dF(u)_yu+dG(u)_xu\right)𝑑x𝑑y`$
$`+{\displaystyle _D}\left(\mathrm{\Omega }_\tau (x,y,u)(_yF)(u)+(_xG)(u)\right)𝑑x𝑑y`$
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle _D}\left(\tau (_x\stackrel{~}{u},_y\stackrel{~}{u})c(x,y)\right)𝑑x𝑑y+{\displaystyle _D}\mathrm{\Omega }_\tau (x,y,u)𝑑x𝑑y.`$
This proves the lemma. $`\mathrm{}`$

Let us denote the moduli space of solutions of (30) and (31) that represent a given homology class $`AH_2(D\times M,\mathrm{\Lambda };)`$ by

$$_A(\tau ,J):=\{u:DM|u\text{ satisfies }(\text{30})\text{ and }(\text{31}),[\stackrel{~}{u}]=A\}.$$

We shall prove that, for a generic pair $`(\tau ,J)`$, this space is a smooth manifold of dimension $`n+\mu _\mathrm{\Lambda }(A).`$ Moreover, if the pair $`(M,\mathrm{\Lambda }_0)`$ is monotone with minimal Maslov number $`N`$ and $`n+\mu _\mathrm{\Lambda }(A)<N`$, we shall prove that $`_A(\tau ,J)`$ is compact, again for a generic pair $`(\tau ,J)`$. The key tool for establishing compactness is the energy bound of Lemma 5.2. Under these asumptions the moduli spaces can be used to define Gromov invariants of $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$. The significance of these invariants for exact Lagrangian loops lies in the following observation.

###### Lemma 5.3

Let $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ be an exact Lagrangian loop and $`AH_2(D\times M,\mathrm{\Lambda };)`$. Suppose that for every $`\tau 𝒯^+(\mathrm{\Lambda })`$ there exists a $`J`$ such that $`_A(\tau ,J)\mathrm{}.`$ Then

$$\epsilon ^+(\tau _0,\mathrm{\Lambda })+[\tau _0],A0$$

for every $`\tau _0𝒯(\mathrm{\Lambda })`$.

Proof:  Let $`\tau 𝒯^+(\mathrm{\Lambda })`$ and $`u_A(\tau ,J)`$. Let $`\stackrel{~}{u}:DD\times M`$ be given by (32). Then $`\stackrel{~}{u}`$ is a $`\stackrel{~}{J}(\tau ,J)`$-holomorphic curve. By Remark 5.1, $`\stackrel{~}{J}(\tau ,J)`$ is tamed by $`\tau `$. Hence

$$0<_D\stackrel{~}{u}^{}\tau =[\tau ],A=[\tau _0],A+s(\tau ,\tau _0).$$

The infimum of the numbers on the right is $`[\tau _0],A+\epsilon ^+(\tau _0,\mathrm{\Lambda })`$. This proves the lemma. $`\mathrm{}`$

A similar estimate for $`\epsilon ^{}(\tau _0,\mathrm{\Lambda })`$ can be obtained by studying anti-holomorphic curves. These are solutions of the equation

$$_xuX_F(u)J(_yuX_G(u))=0,$$
(33)
that satisfy the same boundary condition (31). Let us denote the moduli space of solutions by $`_A(\tau ,J)`$

###### Lemma 5.4

Let $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ be an exact Lagrangian loop and $`AH_2(D\times M,\mathrm{\Lambda };)`$. Suppose that for every $`\tau 𝒯^{}(\mathrm{\Lambda })`$ there exists a $`J`$ such that $`_A(\tau ,J)\mathrm{}.`$ Then

$$\epsilon ^{}(\tau _0,\mathrm{\Lambda })+[\tau _0],A0$$

for every $`\tau _0𝒯(\mathrm{\Lambda })`$.

Proof:  Let $`\tau 𝒯^{}(\mathrm{\Lambda })`$ and $`u_A(\tau ,J)`$. Let $`\stackrel{~}{u}:DD\times M`$ be given by (32). Then $`\stackrel{~}{u}`$ is a $`\stackrel{~}{J}(\tau ,J)`$-holomorphic curve. By Remark 5.1, $`\stackrel{~}{J}(\tau ,J)`$ is tamed by $`\tau `$. Hence

$$0>_D\stackrel{~}{u}^{}\tau =[\tau ],A=[\tau _0],A+s(\tau ,\tau _0).$$

The supremum of the numbers on the right is $`[\tau _0],A+\epsilon ^{}(\tau _0,\mathrm{\Lambda })`$. This proves the lemma. $`\mathrm{}`$

### 5.2 Fredholm theory

In this subsection we examine the moduli spaces $`_A^\pm (\tau ,J)`$ in more detail and show that, for a generic $`J`$, these spaces are smooth manifolds of the predicted dimensions $`n\pm \mu _\mathrm{\Lambda }(A)`$. The arguments are standard (cf. ) and we shall only outline the main points. Fix an exact Lagrangian loop $`\mathrm{\Lambda }S^1\times M`$, a homology class $`AH_2(D\times M,\mathrm{\Lambda };)`$, and a constant $`p>2`$. Consider the Banach manifold

$$=W_{\mathrm{\Lambda },A}^{1,p}(D,M)$$

of all functions $`u:DM`$ of class $`W^{1,p}`$ that satisfy the boundary condition (31) and represent the class $`A`$. There is a natural vector bundle $``$ with fibres

$$_u=L^p(D,u^{}TM)$$

and the left hand sides of (30) and (33) define Fredholm sections $`^\pm :`$ given by

$$^\pm (u):=(u;\tau ,\pm J):=_xuX_F(u)\pm J(_yuX_G(u)).$$

The moduli spaces $`_A(\tau ,\pm J)`$ are the zero sets of these sections. The tangent space

$$T_u=W_\mathrm{\Lambda }^{1,p}(D,u^{}TM)$$

consists of all vector fields $`\xi W^{1,p}(D,u^{}TM)`$ along $`u`$ which are of class $`W^{1,p}`$ and satisfy the boundary condition $`\xi (e^{2\pi it})T_{u(e^{2\pi it})}\mathrm{\Lambda }_t.`$ The vertical differential of $`^\pm `$ at a zero $`u_A^\pm (\tau ,J)`$ is the linear operator

$$D_u^\pm =D^\pm (u):W_\mathrm{\Lambda }^{1,p}(D,u^{}TM)L^p(D,u^{}TM)$$

given by

$$D_u^\pm \xi ={}_{x}{}^{}\xi {}_{\xi }{}^{}X_{F}^{}(u)\pm J({}_{y}{}^{}\xi {}_{\xi }{}^{}X_{G}^{}(u))\pm ({}_{\xi }{}^{}J)(_yuX_G(u)).$$
(34)
Here $``$ denotes the Levi-Civita connection of the Riemannian metric

$$,_{x,y}=\omega (,J_{x,y})$$

and thus depends on $`x+iyD`$. The expression $`X_F`$ denotes the covariant derivative of $`X_F=X_{F_{x,y}}`$ with respect to the Levi-Civita connection at the point $`x+iy`$. The next theorem follows from the Riemann-Roch theorem for discs (see for example  for a recent exposition) and the infinite dimensional implicit function theorem (see for example \[26, Appendix B\]). The proof is standard (see for example ) and will be omitted.

###### Theorem 5.5

For every $`uW_{\mathrm{\Lambda },A}^{1,p}(D,M)`$ the operators $`D_u^\pm `$ defined by (34) are Fredholm and their indices are

$$\mathrm{index}D_u^\pm =n\pm \mu _\mathrm{\Lambda }(u).$$

If $`D_u^\pm `$ is surjective for every $`u_A(\tau ,\pm J)`$ then $`_A(\tau ,\pm J)`$ is a smooth manifold of dimension

$$dim_A(\tau ,\pm J)=n\pm \mu _\mathrm{\Lambda }(A).$$

Fix an exact Lagrangian loop $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ and a connection $`2`$-form $`\tau 𝒯(\mathrm{\Lambda })`$. Let us denote by $`𝒥(D;M,\omega )`$ the space of all smooth families of almost complex structures $`J:D𝒥(M,\omega )`$. Such a family $`J𝒥(D;M,\omega )`$ is called regular for (30) if $`D_u^+`$ is surjective for every $`AH_2(D\times M,\mathrm{\Lambda };)`$ and every $`u_A(\tau ,J)`$. Similarly, $`J𝒥(D;M,\omega )`$ is called regular for (33) if $`D_u^{}`$ is surjective for every $`AH_2(D\times M,\mathrm{\Lambda };)`$ and every $`u_A(\tau ,J)`$. We shall denote set of all families of almost complex structures that are regular for (30), respectively (33), by

$$𝒥_{\mathrm{reg}}^\pm (\tau ,\mathrm{\Lambda })𝒥(D;M,\omega ).$$

The proof of the next theorem is a standard application of the Sard-Smale theorem (cf. ) and will be omitted.

###### Theorem 5.6

The sets $`𝒥_{\mathrm{reg}}^\pm (\tau ,\mathrm{\Lambda })`$ are of the second category in $`𝒥(D;M,\omega )`$ in the sense of Baire, i.e. they are countable intersections of open and dense subsets of $`𝒥(D;M,\omega )`$. In particular, they are dense.

Let $`\tau _0,\tau _1𝒯(\mathrm{\Lambda })`$ and choose regular families of almost complex structures

$$J_0𝒥_{\mathrm{reg}}^\pm (\tau _0,\mathrm{\Lambda }),J_1𝒥_{\mathrm{reg}}^\pm (\tau _1,\mathrm{\Lambda }).$$

By Theorem 5.5, the spaces $`_A(\tau _0,\pm J_0)`$ and $`_A(\tau _1,\pm J_1)`$ are smooth manifolds of the same dimension. These manifolds are cobordant. To construct a cobordism choose a smooth path $`[0,1]𝒯(\mathrm{\Lambda }):\lambda \tau _\lambda `$ that connects $`\tau _0`$ to $`\tau _1`$. Let us denote by

$$𝒥=𝒥([0,1]\times D,J_0,J_1;M,\omega )$$

the space of smooth homotopies $`[0,1]𝒥(D;M,\omega ):\lambda J_\lambda `$ that connect $`J_0`$ to $`J_1`$. Given $`\{J_\lambda \}𝒥`$ denote

$$𝒲_A(\{\tau _\lambda \},\{\pm J_\lambda \})=\left\{(\lambda ,u)\right|\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0}\lambda 1,u_A(\tau _\lambda ,\pm J_\lambda )\}.$$

A homotopy $`\{J_\lambda \}𝒥`$ is called regular if, for every $`AH_2(D\times M,\mathrm{\Lambda };)`$ and every pair $`(\lambda ,u)𝒲_A(\{\tau _\lambda \},\{\pm J_\lambda \})`$,

$$\mathrm{im}D_{\lambda ,u}^\pm +\xi _{\lambda ,u}^\pm =L^p(D,u^{}TM).$$

Here $`D_{\lambda ,u}^\pm `$ is defined by (34) with $`\tau `$ and $`J`$ replaced by $`\tau _\lambda `$ and $`J_\lambda `$, respectively, and $`\xi _{\lambda ,u}^\pm L^p(D,u^{}TM)`$ is given by

$$\xi _{\lambda ,u}^\pm :=X_{_\lambda F_\lambda }(u)\pm J_\lambda (u)X_{_\lambda G_\lambda }(u)_\lambda J_\lambda (u)(_yuX_{G_\lambda }(u)).$$

The set of all regular homotopies will be denoted by

$$𝒥_{\mathrm{reg}}^\pm (\{\tau _\lambda \},J_0,J_1,\mathrm{\Lambda })𝒥.$$

The proof of the next theorem is again standard and will be omitted.

###### Theorem 5.7

Let $`[0,1]𝒯(\mathrm{\Lambda }):\lambda \tau _\lambda `$ be a smooth family of connection $`2`$-forms and suppose that $`J_0𝒥_{\mathrm{reg}}^\pm (\tau _0,\mathrm{\Lambda })`$ and $`J_1𝒥_{\mathrm{reg}}^\pm (\tau _1,\mathrm{\Lambda }).`$ Then the sets $`𝒥_{\mathrm{reg}}^\pm (\{\tau _\lambda \},J_0,J_1,\mathrm{\Lambda })𝒥`$ are of the second category in the sense of Baire. Moreover, if $`\{J_\lambda \}𝒥_{\mathrm{reg}}^\pm (\{\tau _\lambda \},J_0,J_1,\mathrm{\Lambda })`$ then $`𝒲_A(\{\tau _\lambda \},\{\pm J_\lambda \})`$ is a smooth manifold of dimension

$$dim𝒲_A(\{\tau _\lambda \},\{\pm J_\lambda \})=n\pm \mu _\mathrm{\Lambda }(A)+1$$

with boundary

$$𝒲_A(\{\tau _\lambda \},\{\pm J_\lambda \})=_A(\tau _0,\pm J_0)_A(\tau _1,\pm J_1).$$

### 5.3 Compactness

###### Theorem 5.8

Let $`\mathrm{\Lambda }S^1\times M`$ be an exact Lagrangian loop and suppose that the pair $`(M,\mathrm{\Lambda }_0)`$ is monotone. Let $`AH_2(D\times M,\mathrm{\Lambda };)`$ and denote by $`N`$ the minimal Maslov number of the pair $`(M,\mathrm{\Lambda }_0)`$.

(i) If

$$n\pm \mu _\mathrm{\Lambda }(A)N1$$

then $`_A(\tau ,\pm J)`$ is compact for every $`\tau 𝒯(\mathrm{\Lambda })`$ and every $`J𝒥_{\mathrm{reg}}^\pm (\tau ,\mathrm{\Lambda })`$.

(ii) If

$$n\pm \mu _\mathrm{\Lambda }(A)N2$$

then $`𝒲_A(\{\tau _\lambda \},\{\pm J_\lambda \})`$ is compact for every smooth path $`[0,1]𝒯(\mathrm{\Lambda }):\lambda \tau _\lambda `$, every $`J_0𝒥_{\mathrm{reg}}^\pm (\tau _0,\mathrm{\Lambda })`$, every $`J_1𝒥_{\mathrm{reg}}^\pm (\tau _1,\mathrm{\Lambda })`$, and every regular homotopy $`\{J_\lambda \}𝒥_{\mathrm{reg}}^\pm (\{\tau _\lambda \},J_0,J_1,\mathrm{\Lambda })`$.

The proof of Theorem 5.8 relies on the following theorem about Gromov compactness for $`J`$-holomorphic discs. This result is implicitly contained in Gromov’s original paper  and has been folk knowledge since then. However, the full details of the proof have not so far appeared in the literature. They were recently carried out by Frauenfelder  in his Diploma thesis. In his thesis Frauenfelder also discusses the corresponding notion of stable maps for pseudoholomorphic discs.

###### Theorem 5.9 (Gromov)

Let $`(\tau ^\nu ,J^\nu )𝒯(\mathrm{\Lambda })\times 𝒥(D;M,\omega )`$ be a sequence that converges in the $`𝒞^{\mathrm{}}`$-topology to $`(\tau ,J)𝒯(\mathrm{\Lambda })\times 𝒥(D;M,\omega )`$. Let $`AH_2(D\times M,\mathrm{\Lambda };)`$ and $`u^\nu _A(\tau ^\nu ,\pm J^\nu )`$. If $`u^\nu `$ has no $`𝒞^{\mathrm{}}`$-convergent subsequence then there exist

finitely many points $`(x_i,y_i)D`$ and maps $`v_i:S^2M`$, $`i=1,\mathrm{},k`$,

finitely many points $`t_j`$ and maps $`w_j:DM`$, $`j=1\mathrm{},\mathrm{}`$,

a map $`u_0:DM`$,

such that $`v_i`$ is a nonconstant $`J_{x_i,y_i}`$-(anti)holomorphic sphere for $`i=1,\mathrm{},k`$, $`w_j`$ is a nonconstant $`J_{e^{2\pi it_j}}`$-(anti)holomorphic disc with $`w_j(D)\mathrm{\Lambda }_{t_j}`$ for $`j=1,\mathrm{},\mathrm{}`$, $`u_0_{A_0}(\tau ,\pm J)`$ for some $`A_0H_2(D\times M,\mathrm{\Lambda };)`$, and

$$A=A_0+\underset{i=1}{\overset{k}{}}[v_i]+\underset{j=1}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}[w_j].$$
(35)
Here $`[v_i]`$ and $`[w_j]`$ denote the induced homology classes in $`H_2(D\times M,\mathrm{\Lambda };)`$ and one of the integers $`k`$ and $`\mathrm{}`$ is nonzero.

###### Remark 5.10

(i) Let $`\stackrel{~}{M}`$ be a compact manifold and $`\stackrel{~}{L}\stackrel{~}{M}`$ be a compact submanifold of half the dimension. Suppose that $`\stackrel{~}{\omega }^\nu `$ is a sequence of symplectic forms on $`M`$ that converges to $`\stackrel{~}{\omega }`$ in the $`𝒞^{\mathrm{}}`$-topology such that $`\stackrel{~}{L}`$ is a Lagrangian submanifold of $`(\stackrel{~}{M},\stackrel{~}{\omega }^\nu )`$ for every $`\nu `$. Suppose that $`\stackrel{~}{J}^\nu `$ is a sequence of $`\stackrel{~}{\omega }^\nu `$-tame almost complex structures on $`\stackrel{~}{M}`$ that converges in the $`𝒞^{\mathrm{}}`$-topology to $`\stackrel{~}{J}`$. In  Frauenfelder proves, in particular, that a sequence of $`\stackrel{~}{J}^\nu `$-holomorphic discs $`\stackrel{~}{u}^\nu :(D,D)(\stackrel{~}{M},\stackrel{~}{L})`$ that represent a fixed homology class $`AH_2(\stackrel{~}{M},\stackrel{~}{L};)`$ has a subsequence that converges (in a precisely defined sense) to a tree consisting of $`\stackrel{~}{J}`$-holomorphic spheres in $`\stackrel{~}{M}`$ and $`\stackrel{~}{J}`$-holomorphic discs in $`\stackrel{~}{M}`$ with boundary in $`\stackrel{~}{L}`$ such that the sum of their homology classes in $`H_2(\stackrel{~}{M},\stackrel{~}{L};)`$ is equal to $`A`$. The techniques in  are an adaptation of those in Hofer–Salamon  for holomorphic spheres to the case of holomorphic discs.

(ii) The moduli space $`_A(\tau ,\pm J)`$ does not depend on the function $`c:DM`$ in (12). Hence we may assume without loss of generality that the connection forms $`\tau ^\nu `$ in Theorem 5.9 lie in $`𝒯^\pm (\mathrm{\Lambda })`$. Under this assumption the manifold $`\stackrel{~}{M}=D\times M`$, the submanifold $`\stackrel{~}{L}=\mathrm{\Lambda }`$, the symplectic forms $`\stackrel{~}{\omega }^\nu =\pm \tau ^\nu `$, the almost complex structures $`\stackrel{~}{J}^\nu =\stackrel{~}{J}(\tau ^\nu ,\pm J^\nu )`$ defined in Remark 5.1, and the functions $`\stackrel{~}{u}^\nu `$ given by (32) satisfy the requirements of (i).

(iii) Theorem 5.9 follows from (i) and (ii) since each bubble in the limit curve is contained in a fibre of the (trivial) fibration $`D\times M`$. To see this, note that each curve $`v_i`$ appears as the limit of a sequence

$$v_i^\nu (x,y)=u^\nu (x_i^\nu +\epsilon ^\nu x,y_i^\nu +\epsilon ^\nu y),$$

where $`x_i^\nu x_i`$, $`y_i^\nu y_i`$, $`\epsilon ^\nu 0`$, and

$$\underset{\nu \mathrm{}}{lim}\frac{\epsilon ^\nu }{1\sqrt{(x_i^\nu )^2+(y_i^\nu )^2}}=0.$$

One can show that, after passing to a suitable subsequence, the sequence $`v_i^\nu `$ converges to $`v_i`$ in the $`𝒞^{\mathrm{}}`$-topology on the complement of some finite set. The functions $`v_i^\nu `$ satisfy

$$_xv_i^\nu \epsilon ^\nu X_{F^\nu }+J^\nu (_yv_i^\nu \epsilon ^\nu X_{G^\nu })=0,$$

where $`X_{F^\nu }`$, $`X_{G^\nu }`$, and $`J^\nu `$ are evaluated at the point $`(x_i^\nu +\epsilon ^\nu x,y_i^\nu +\epsilon ^\nu y,v_i^\nu )`$. It follows that the limit curve $`v_i`$ extends to a $`J_{x_i,y_i}`$-holomorphic sphere. The holomorphic discs $`w_j`$ appear as similar limits with $`x_j+iy_j=e^{2\pi it_j}`$ and

$$\underset{\nu \mathrm{}}{lim}\frac{\epsilon ^\nu }{1\sqrt{(x_j^\nu )^2+(y_j^\nu )^2}}>0.$$

A similar argument as above, with coordinates on the upper halfplane, then shows that the limit curve $`w_j`$ is a $`J_{e^{2\pi it_j}}`$-holomorphic disc with boundary values in $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_{t_j}`$.

(iv) The limit curve in (i) is a stable map consisting of $`\stackrel{~}{J}`$-holomorphic discs and spheres. For closed curves this concept is due to Kontsevich . Some of the components of the stable map may be constant. However, these do not contribute to the homology class and can be neglected for our purposes. If the original sequence $`\stackrel{~}{u}^\nu `$ does not have a $`𝒞^{\mathrm{}}`$-convergent subsequence, then the limit curve has more than one nonconstant component. This shows that in Theorem 5.9 either $`k`$ or $`\mathrm{}`$ is nonzero.

Proof of Theorem 5.8: We prove (ii). Suppose, by contradiction, that $`𝒲_A(\{\tau _\lambda \},\{\pm J_\lambda \})`$ is not compact. Then there exists a sequence

$$(\lambda ^\nu ,u^\nu )𝒲_A(\{\tau _\lambda \},\{\pm J_\lambda \})$$

that has no convergent subsequence. We may assume without loss of generality that $`\lambda ^\nu `$ converges to $`\lambda _0`$. Then, by Theorem 5.9, there exist nonconstant $`J_{\lambda _0;x_i,y_i}`$-(anti)holomorphic spheres $`v_i:S^2M`$ for $`i=1,\mathrm{},k`$, nonconstant $`J_{\lambda _0;e^{2\pi it_j}}`$-(anti)holomorphic discs $`w_j:(D,D)(M,L_{t_j})`$ for $`j=1,\mathrm{},\mathrm{}`$, and an element $`u_0_{A_0}(\tau _{\lambda _0},\pm J_{\lambda _0})`$ for some $`A_0H_2(D\times M,\mathrm{\Lambda };)`$ such that (35) is satisfied. Since the pair $`(M,\mathrm{\Lambda }_t)`$ is monotone with minimal Maslov number $`N`$ for every $`t`$ we have

$$\pm \mu _\mathrm{\Lambda }(v_i)N,\pm \mu _\mathrm{\Lambda }(w_j)N$$

for $`i=1,\mathrm{},k`$ and $`j=1,\mathrm{},\mathrm{}`$. Since either $`k`$ or $`\mathrm{}`$ is nonzero this implies

$`n\pm \mu _\mathrm{\Lambda }(A)`$ $`=`$ $`n\pm \mu _\mathrm{\Lambda }(A_0)\pm {\displaystyle \underset{i=1}{\overset{k}{}}}\mu _\mathrm{\Lambda }(v_i)\pm {\displaystyle \underset{j=1}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}}\mu _\mathrm{\Lambda }(w_j)`$
$``$ $`n\pm \mu _\mathrm{\Lambda }(A_0)+N.`$
Since $`\{J_\lambda \}𝒥_{\mathrm{reg}}^\pm (\{\tau _\lambda \},J_0,J_1,\mathrm{\Lambda })`$, the moduli space $`𝒲_{A_0}(\{\tau _\lambda \},\{\pm J_\lambda \})`$ is a smooth manifolds of dimension

$`dim𝒲_{A_0}(\{\tau _\lambda \},\{\pm J_\lambda \})`$ $`=`$ $`n\pm \mu _\mathrm{\Lambda }(A_0)+1`$
$``$ $`n\pm \mu _\mathrm{\Lambda }(A)+1N`$
$`<`$ $`0.`$
Hence

$$𝒲_{A_0}(\{\tau _\lambda \},\{\pm J_\lambda \})=\mathrm{},$$

in contradiction to the fact that

$$(\lambda _0,u_0)𝒲_{A_0}(\{\tau _\lambda \},\{\pm J_\lambda \}).$$

Thus we have proved (ii). The proof of (i) is almost word by word the same and will be left to the reader. $`\mathrm{}`$

### 5.4 Gromov invariants

Fix an exact Lagrangian loop $`\mathrm{\Lambda }S^1\times M`$ and a class $`AH_2(D\times M,\mathrm{\Lambda };)`$. Throughout we shall assume that the pair $`(M,\mathrm{\Lambda }_0)`$ is monotone and

$$n\pm \mu _\mathrm{\Lambda }(A)N2,$$
(36)
where $`N`$ denotes the minimal Maslov number of the pair $`(M,\mathrm{\Lambda }_0)`$. Fix a tuple $`𝐭=(t_1,\mathrm{},t_k)^k`$ such that $`0t_1<\mathrm{}<t_k<1`$ and denote

$$\mathrm{\Lambda }_𝐭:=\mathrm{\Lambda }_{t_1}\times \mathrm{}\times \mathrm{\Lambda }_{t_k}.$$

For $`\tau 𝒯(\mathrm{\Lambda })`$ and $`J𝒥(D;M,\omega )`$ we define $`\mathrm{ev}_𝐭:_A(\tau ,\pm J)\mathrm{\Lambda }_𝐭`$ by

$$\mathrm{ev}_𝐭(u):=(u(e^{2\pi it_1}),\mathrm{},u(e^{2\pi it_k})).$$

If $`J𝒥_{\mathrm{reg}}^\pm (\tau ,\mathrm{\Lambda })`$ then, by Theorems 5.5 and 5.8, the moduli space $`_A^\pm (\tau ,J)`$ is a compact smooth manifolds(without boundary) of dimension $`n\pm \mu _\mathrm{\Lambda }(A)`$. It is not necessarily orientable. Let

$$[_A(\tau ,\pm J)]H_{n\pm \mu _\mathrm{\Lambda }(A)}(_A(\tau ,\pm J);_2)$$

denote the fundamental cycle. The Gromov invariants are defined by

$$\mathrm{Gr}_{A,𝐭}^\pm (\mathrm{\Lambda }):=\mathrm{ev}_{𝐭}^{}{}_{}{}^{}[_A^\pm (\tau ,J)]H_{n\pm \mu _\mathrm{\Lambda }(A)}(\mathrm{\Lambda }_𝐭;_2).$$
(37)
###### Lemma 5.11

The homology classes $`\mathrm{Gr}_{A,𝐭}^\pm (\mathrm{\Lambda })H_{n\pm \mu _\mathrm{\Lambda }(A)}(\mathrm{\Lambda }_𝐭;_2)`$ are independent of the choices of the connection $`2`$-form $`\tau 𝒯(\mathrm{\Lambda })`$ and the almost complex structure $`J𝒥_{\mathrm{reg}}^\pm (\tau ,\mathrm{\Lambda })`$ used to define them.

Proof:  Theorems 5.7 and 5.8 (ii). $`\mathrm{}`$

###### Corollary 5.12

Let $`A^\pm H_2(D\times M,\mathrm{\Lambda };)`$ satisfy (36) and suppose that

$$\mathrm{Gr}_{A^\pm ,𝐭^\pm }^\pm (\mathrm{\Lambda })0$$

for some $`𝐭^\pm `$. Then

$$\epsilon ^+(\tau ,\mathrm{\Lambda })[\tau ],A^+,\epsilon ^{}(\tau ,\mathrm{\Lambda })[\tau ],A^{}$$

for every $`\tau 𝒯(\mathrm{\Lambda })`$.

Proof:  Lemmata 5.3 and 5.4. $`\mathrm{}`$

## 6 Complex projective space

In this section we shall use the Gromov invariants to compute the K-area of certain exact Lagrangian loops in $`P^n`$. The archetypal example is the half turn of a great circle in the 2-sphere. An explicit computation shows that the Hofer length of this loop is $`1/2`$. We shall use Corollary 5.12 and Theorems 3.3 and 3.5 to show that this loop minimizes the Hofer length in its Hamiltonian isotopy class.

### 6.1 Rotations of real projective space

Consider the complex projective space

$$M=P^n$$

equipped with symplectic form $`\omega `$ that is induced by the Fubini-Study metric and satisfies the normalization condition

$$_{P^n}\omega ^n=1.$$

Let $`L=P^n`$ and fix an integer $`k\{1,\mathrm{},n\}`$. As in the introduction, we consider the exact Lagrangian loop

$$\mathrm{\Lambda }:=\underset{t}{}\{e^{2\pi it}\}\times \psi _t(P^n),$$
(38)
where

$$\psi _t([z_0:\mathrm{}:z_n])=([z_0:e^{\pi it}z_1:\mathrm{}:e^{\pi it}z_k:z_{k+1}:\mathrm{}:z_n]).$$

The Hamiltonian isotopy $`\psi _t`$ is generated, via (4), by the the time independent Hamiltonian function $`H_t=H:P^n`$ given by

$$H([z_0:\mathrm{}:z_n])=\frac{k}{2n+2}\frac{|z_1|^2+\mathrm{}+|z_k|^2}{2(|z_0|^2+\mathrm{}+|z_n|^2)}.$$
(39)
This function has mean value zero and Hofer norm

$$H=\mathrm{max}H\mathrm{min}H=\frac{1}{2}.$$

Since $`H`$ attains its maximum and its minimum on $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_t=\psi _t(P^n)`$ it follows that $`\mathrm{}(\mathrm{\Lambda })=1/2.`$

### 6.2 The Maslov index

We prove that the minimal Maslov number of the pair $`(P^n,P^n)`$ is

$$N=n+1.$$
(40)
For $`n=1`$ this is obvious. For $`n>1`$ consider the homology exact sequence of the pair $`(P^n,P^n)`$. It has the form

$$0H_2(P^n;)H_2(P^n,P^n;)H_1(P^n;)0.$$

Now $`P^n`$ decomposes the line $`P^1P^n`$ into two discs that represent the same homotopy class in $`\pi _2(P^n,P^n)`$. Hence there is an element $`AH_2(P^n,P^n;)`$ such that $`2A`$ is equal to the image of the generator under the homomorphism

$$H_2(P^n;)H_2(P^n,P^n;).$$

This implies that $`A`$ is the generator of $`H_2(P^n,P^n;)`$. Since the Maslov class of $`2A\pi _2(P^n,P^n)`$ is equal to $`2c_1(TP^n),[P^1]=2n+2`$ we have proved (40).

###### Lemma 6.1

Let $`(M,\omega )`$ be a symplectic manifold and $`\mathrm{\Lambda }S^1\times M`$ be an exact Lagrangian loop such that $`(M,\mathrm{\Lambda }_0)`$ is a monotone pair with minimal Maslov number $`N`$. Then

$$\mu _\mathrm{\Lambda }(u_1)\mu _\mathrm{\Lambda }(u_0)\text{ }\text{mod}\text{ }N$$

for all $`u_0,u_1\mathrm{Map}_\mathrm{\Lambda }(D,M)`$.

Proof:  If $`u_0(e^{2\pi it})=u_1(e^{2\pi it})`$ for every $`t`$ then $`u_0`$ (with reversed orientation) and $`u_1`$ form a sphere and the difference $`\mu _\mathrm{\Lambda }(u_1)\mu _\mathrm{\Lambda }(u_0)`$ is equal twice the first Chern number of this sphere. Hence the difference of the Maslov numbers is an even multiple of $`N`$. This continues to hold whenever $`u_0|_D`$ is homotopic to $`u_1|_D`$ as a section of the bundle $`\mathrm{\Lambda }S^1`$. For any two maps $`u_0,u_1\mathrm{Map}_\mathrm{\Lambda }(D,M)`$ there exists a smooth function $`v:(D,D)(M,\mathrm{\Lambda }_0)`$ such that $`v(1)=u_0(1)`$ and the connected sum $`u_0\mathrm{\#}v`$ is homotopic to $`u_1`$ along the boundary. Hence, by what we have just proved,

$$\mu _\mathrm{\Lambda }(u_1)\mu _\mathrm{\Lambda }(u_0)\mu _{\mathrm{\Lambda }_0}(v)2N.$$

Since $`\mu _{\mathrm{\Lambda }_0}(v)`$ is an integer multiple of $`N`$, the lemma is proved. $`\mathrm{}`$

Returning to the loop $`\mathrm{\Lambda }S^1\times P^n`$ we observe that (39) is a Morse-Bott function with critical manifolds

$$C^+:=\{[0:z_1:\mathrm{}:z_k:0:\mathrm{}:0]|(z_1,\mathrm{},z_k)^k\{0\}\},$$

$$C^{}:=\{[z_0:0:\mathrm{}:0:z_{k+1}:\mathrm{}:z_n]|(z_0,z_{k+1},\mathrm{},z_n)^{nk+1}\{0\}\}.$$

Note that $`H`$ attains its minimum $`(kn1)/(2n+2)`$ on $`C^+`$ and its maximum $`k/(2n+2)`$ on $`C^{}`$. Moreover, $`C^\pm P^n\mathrm{\Lambda }_t`$ for every $`t`$. Let us denote by

$$A^\pm H_2(D\times P^n,\mathrm{\Lambda };)$$

the homology classes represented by the constant functions $`DP^n`$ with values in $`C^\pm P^n`$. The next lemma shows that $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ has Maslov index $`k_{n+1}`$ as claimed in the introduction (see (2)). It also shows that the homology classes $`A^\pm H_2(D\times P^n,\mathrm{\Lambda };)`$ satisfy the condition (36) for the definition of the Gromov invariants.

###### Lemma 6.2

$$\mu _\mathrm{\Lambda }(A^+)=k1n,\mu _\mathrm{\Lambda }(A^{})=k.$$
(41)
Proof:  In the case of $`A^{}`$, consider the constant function $`u(x,y)p:=[1:0:\mathrm{}:0].`$ Then a trivialization of the pullback tangent bundle $`u^{}TP^n`$ is determined by the coordinate chart $`[z_0:\mathrm{}:z_n](z_1/z_0,\mathrm{},z_n/z_0).`$ In these coordinates the Hamiltonian flow is $`\zeta (e^{\pi it}\zeta _1,\mathrm{},e^{\pi it}\zeta _k,\zeta _{k+1},\mathrm{},\zeta _n).`$ Since $`T_p\mathrm{\Lambda }_0^n^nT_pP^n,`$ we see that the Maslov index of the loop $`tT_p\mathrm{\Lambda }_t`$ is equal to $`k`$. This proves the second equation in (41) and the first follows from a similar argument. $`\mathrm{}`$

### 6.3 Computation of the Gromov invariants

Since $`N=n+1`$ it follows from Lemma 6.2 that the classes $`A^\pm `$ satisfy (36) and hence the requirements of Theorem 5.8. The next theorem shows that the Gromov invariants $`\mathrm{Gr}_{A^\pm ,0}^\pm (\mathrm{\Lambda })`$ are nonzero. Here the subscript $`0`$ corresponds to the choice $`𝐭=t_1=0`$ for the evaluation map.

###### Theorem 6.3

$$\mathrm{Gr}_{A^+,0}^+(\mathrm{\Lambda })=[P^{k1}]H_{k1}(P^n;_2),$$

$$\mathrm{Gr}_{A^{},0}^{}(\mathrm{\Lambda })=[P^{nk}]H_{nk}(P^n;_2).$$

Proof:  Let $`\tau 𝒯(\mathrm{\Lambda })`$ be given by (12) with $`c=0`$ and

$$F_{x,y}=\frac{\mathrm{sin}(2\pi t)\rho (r)}{2\pi r}H,G_{x,y}=\frac{\mathrm{cos}(2\pi t)\rho (r)}{2\pi r}H,$$

where $`re^{2\pi it}=x+iy`$ and $`H`$ is given by (39). As in (17), $`\rho :[0,1][0,1]`$ is a smooth nondecreasing cutoff function such that $`\rho (r)=0`$ for $`r`$ near $`0`$ and $`\rho (r)=1`$ for $`r`$ near $`1`$. The formula

$$\mathrm{\Omega }_\tau (re^{2\pi it},z)=\frac{\dot{\rho }(r)}{2\pi r}H(z)$$
(42)
for $`zP^n`$ shows that $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\tau (x,y,z)0`$ for $`zC^+`$ and $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\tau (x,y,z)0`$ for $`zC^{}`$. By (42) and Lemma 5.2 with $`c=0`$ and $`E(u)=0`$,

$$[\tau ],A^+=\frac{k1n}{2n+2},[\tau ],A^{}=\frac{k}{2n+2}.$$
(43)
The explicit formulae for $`F`$ and $`G`$ show that $`C^\pm `$ consist entirely of critical points of $`F_{x,y}`$ and $`G_{x,y}`$ for all $`x+iyD`$. This shows that the constant functions $`u:DP^n`$ with values in $`C^+C^{}`$ are horizontal for the symplectic connection determined by $`\tau `$. In explicit terms $`_xu=X_F(u)`$ and $`_yu=X_G(u)`$. Hence these constant functions satisfy both equations (30) and (33) for every $`J𝒥(D;P^n,\omega )`$. The constant functions with values in $`(C^+C^{})P^n`$ satisfy in addition the boundary condition (31). The formula (41) shows that the constant solutions with values in $`C^+P^n`$ and those with values in $`C^{}P^n`$ represent different homology classes.

We prove that, for every $`J𝒥(D;P^n,\omega )`$,

$$_{A^+}(\tau ,J)=\{u:DC^+P^n|du=0\}.$$
(44)
To see this, let $`u_{A^+}(\tau ,J)`$. Then, by Lemma 5.2 and (42),

$`0`$ $``$ $`E(u)`$
$`=`$ $`[\tau ],A^++{\displaystyle _D}\mathrm{\Omega }_\tau (x,y,u(x,y))𝑑x𝑑y`$
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{kn1}{2n+2}}{\displaystyle _0^1}{\displaystyle _0^1}\dot{\rho }(r)H(u(re^{2\pi it}))𝑑r𝑑t`$
$``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{kn1}{2n+2}}{\displaystyle _0^1}{\displaystyle _0^1}\dot{\rho }(r)\mathrm{min}Hdrdt`$
$`=`$ $`0.`$
Hence every $`u_{A^+}(\tau ,J)`$ satisfies $`E(u)=0`$ and

$$\dot{\rho }(r)0H(u(re^{2\pi it}))=\mathrm{min}H.$$

The latter implies that $`u(x_0,y_0)C^+`$ for some point $`x_0+iy_0D`$ and the former implies that $`u`$ is a horizontal section of $`D\times M`$ with respect to $`\tau `$. Now let $`x_1+iy_1D`$, choose a path $`[0,1]D:tx(t)+iy(t)`$ that connects $`x_0+iy_0`$ to $`x_1+iy_1`$, and define $`z:[0,1]M`$ by

$$z(t):=u(x(t),y(t)).$$

Then $`z(0)C^+`$ and

$$\dot{z}(t)=\dot{x}(t)X_{F_{x(t),y(t)}}(z(t))+\dot{y}(t)X_{G_{x(t),y(t)}}(z(t)).$$

Since $`C^+`$ consists of critical points of $`F_{x,y}`$ and $`G_{x,y}`$ for all $`x+iyD`$ it follows that $`z(t)=z(0)`$ for all $`t[0,1]`$. Hence $`u`$ is constant. The boundary condition shows that this constant lies in $`C^+P^n`$. This proves (44). Hence $`_{A^+}(\tau ,J)`$ is diffeomorphic to $`P^{k1}`$ for every $`J`$ and, in particular, for every $`J𝒥_{\mathrm{reg}}^+(\tau ,\mathrm{\Lambda })`$. The evaluation map $`uu(1)`$ is obviously an embedding of $`_{A^+}(\tau ,J)P^{k1}`$ into $`P^n`$. A similar assertion holds for $`_A^{}(\tau ,J)`$ and this proves the theorem. $`\mathrm{}`$

### 6.4 Invariants of projective Lagrangian loops

Let $`\mathrm{PL}(n+1)`$ denote the manifold of projective Lagrangian planes in $`P^n`$. There is a fibration

$$S^1/\{\pm 1\}\mathrm{L}(n+1)\mathrm{PL}(n+1),$$

where $`\mathrm{L}(n+1)`$ denotes the manifold of Lagrangian subspaces of $`^{n+1}`$ and $`S^1`$ acts by multiplication. The generator $`te^{\pi it}`$ of $`\pi _1(S^1/\{\pm 1\})`$ gives rise to a loop of Lagrangian subspaces of Maslov index $`n+1`$. Hence the homotopy exact sequence of the fibration shows that the fundamental group of $`\mathrm{PL}(n+1)`$ is isomorphic to $`_{n+1}`$. For $`k`$ we denote by $`\mathrm{\Lambda }^kS^1\times P^n`$ the exact Lagrangian loop defined by (1) in the introduction, i.e $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_t^k:=\varphi _{kt}(P^n),`$ where $`\varphi _t([z_0:\mathrm{}:z_n])=[e^{\pi it}z_0:z_1:\mathrm{}:z_n].`$ If $`k`$ is divisible by $`n+1`$ then this loop is contractible. If $`k\{1,\mathrm{},n\}`$ and $`kk^{}\mathrm{mod}n+1`$ then $`\mathrm{\Lambda }^k^{}`$ is Hamiltonian isotopic to $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$.

###### Corollary 6.4

If $`k`$ is not divisible by $`n+1`$ then

$$\nu (\mathrm{\Lambda }^k)=\chi (\mathrm{\Lambda }^k)=\epsilon (\mathrm{\Lambda }^k)=\frac{1}{2}.$$

If $`k`$ is divisible by $`n+1`$ then $`\nu (\mathrm{\Lambda }^k)=\chi (\mathrm{\Lambda }^k)=0.`$

Proof:  The loop $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$, given by (38), is Hamiltonian isotopic to $`\mathrm{\Lambda }^k`$ and hence

$$\epsilon (\mathrm{\Lambda }^k)=\epsilon (\mathrm{\Lambda }),\chi (\mathrm{\Lambda }^k)=\chi (\mathrm{\Lambda }),\nu (\mathrm{\Lambda }^k)=\nu (\mathrm{\Lambda }).$$

By Theorem 6.3, $`\mathrm{Gr}_{A^+,0}^+(\mathrm{\Lambda })0`$ and $`\mathrm{Gr}_{A^{},0}^{}(\mathrm{\Lambda })0.`$ Hence, by Corollary 5.12 and (43),

$$\epsilon ^+(\tau ,\mathrm{\Lambda })[\tau ],A^+=\frac{n+1k}{2n+2},\epsilon ^{}(\tau ,\mathrm{\Lambda })[\tau ],A^{}=\frac{k}{2n+2}.$$

Here $`\tau 𝒯(\mathrm{\Lambda })`$ denotes the connection $`2`$-form introduced in the proof of Theorem 6.3. Hence

$$\epsilon (\mathrm{\Lambda })=\epsilon ^+(\tau ,\mathrm{\Lambda })\epsilon ^{}(\tau ,\mathrm{\Lambda })\frac{1}{2}.$$

Since $`\nu (\mathrm{\Lambda })1/2`$ the result follows from Theorems 3.3 and 3.5. $`\mathrm{}`$

###### Remark 6.5

Our invariants do not distinguish between $`\mathrm{\Lambda }^j`$ and $`\mathrm{\Lambda }^k`$ unless one of the numbers is divisible by $`n+1`$ and the other is not. However, if

$$\mathrm{gcd}(j,n+1)\mathrm{gcd}(k,n+1)$$

then the iterated loops $`\mathrm{\Lambda }^{mj}`$ and $`\mathrm{\Lambda }^{mk}`$ have different invariants for some $`m`$. To see this suppose, without loss of generality, that $`\mathrm{gcd}(j,n+1)<\mathrm{gcd}(k,n+1)`$ and denote

$$m:=\frac{n+1}{\mathrm{gcd}(k,n+1)}<\frac{n+1}{\mathrm{gcd}(j,n+1)}.$$

Then $`mk`$ is divisible by $`n+1`$ whereas $`mj`$ is not. By Corollary 6.4,

$$\nu (\mathrm{\Lambda }^{mj})\nu (\mathrm{\Lambda }^{mk}).$$

In the case of Hamiltonian loops the analogue of the line $`𝒯(\mathrm{\Lambda })`$ has a natural basepoint and in that case there are separate invariants $`\epsilon ^+(P)`$ and $`\epsilon ^{}(P)`$ that contain finer information than their difference.

###### Remark 6.6

We conjecture that the constant loop $`\mathrm{\Lambda }^0=S^1\times P^n`$ satisfies $`\epsilon (\mathrm{\Lambda }^0)=0`$. This does not follow from the techniques of this paper. The homology class $`A^0H^2(D\times P^n,S^1\times P^n;),`$ represented by the constant maps $`DP^n`$, satisfies $`\mu _{\mathrm{\Lambda }^0}(A^0)=0.`$ Hence $`A^0`$ does not satisfy our condition (36) for the definition of the Gromov invariants, although the arguments of Theorem 6.3 carry over to the constant loop $`\mathrm{\Lambda }^0`$ with $`A^+=A^{}=A^0`$. It should be possible to circumvent the problems arising from Gromov compactness by using the invariants introduced in Cieliebak–Gaio–Salamon . We expect that these techniques apply to the constant loop $`\mathrm{\Lambda }^0`$ in $`P^n`$.

###### Remark 6.7

We expect that the techniques of  also apply to symplectic quotients of $`^n`$ that do not satisfy our monotonicity hypothesis. This should give rise to results similar to the ones in this section for general toric varieties.

###### Remark 6.8

Let $`(M,\omega )`$ be a symplectic $`2n`$-manifold and $`L`$ be a closed $`n`$-manifold with $`H^1(L;)=0`$. In  Weinstein considers the space of all pairs $`(\mathrm{\Lambda },\rho )`$ where $`\mathrm{\Lambda }M`$ is a Lagrangian submanifold diffeomorphic to $`L`$ and $`\rho `$ is a volume form on $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ (or a smooth measure in the nonorientable case). He interpretes this space as the cotangent bundle of $`=(M,\omega ,L)`$ and examines the symplectic action functional on the loop space of $`T^{}`$. In  Donaldson interpretes this cotangent bundle as a symplectic quotient of the space of all embeddings $`\iota :LM`$ with vanishing cohomology class $`\iota ^{}[\omega ]`$ by the group of volume preserving diffeomorphisms of $`L`$ (with respect to any given smooth measure). The group action is Hamiltonian and the zero set of the moment map is the space of Lagrangian embeddings of $`L`$ into $`(M,\omega )`$. It would be interesting to examine analogues of the invariants studied in the present paper for loops in $`T^{}`$ and relate these to the work of Weinstein and Donaldson. This will be investigated in .

## Appendix A Symplectic isotopy on Riemann surfaces

The following results are known. However, we could not find proofs in the literature and present them here for the sake of completeness.

###### Proposition A.1

Let $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ be a compact connected oriented Riemann surface with area form $`\omega `$ and $`S,S^{}\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ be two closed embedded discs with the same area. Then there exists a Hamiltonian symplectomorphism $`\psi :\mathrm{\Sigma }\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ such that $`\psi (S)=S^{}.`$

The proof relies on the following three lemmata. The first asserts that, in dimension $`2`$, a symplectomorphism is smoothly isotopic to the identity if and only if it is symplectically isotopic to the identity. For the $`2`$-torus this follows from the characterization of Hamiltonian symplectomorphisms in Conley–Zehnder \[5, Theorem 6\]. In general the proof is a parametrized version of Moser isotopy. The work of Seidel  shows that the result has no analogue in higher dimensions.

###### Lemma A.2

Let $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ be a compact oriented Riemann surface with area form $`\omega `$ and $`\psi :\mathrm{\Sigma }\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ be a symplectomorphism. Then $`\psi `$ is smoothly isotopic to the identity if and only if it is symplectically isotopic to the identity.

Proof:  Let $`[0,1]\mathrm{Diff}(\mathrm{\Sigma }):t\psi _t`$ be a smooth isotopy such that $`\psi _0=\mathrm{id}`$ and $`\psi _1=\psi `$. Define

$$\omega _t:=\psi _{t}^{}{}_{}{}^{}\omega ,\omega _{s,t}:=s\omega +(1s)\omega _t$$

for $`0s,t1`$. Then $`\omega _{s,0}=\omega _{s,1}=\omega _{1,t}=\omega `$ and $`\omega _{0,t}=\omega _t`$ for all $`s`$ and $`t`$. Fix a Riemannian metric on $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ with volume form $`\omega `$ and let $`\alpha _t\mathrm{\Omega }^1(\mathrm{\Sigma })`$ be defined by

$$d\alpha _t=\omega _t\omega ,\alpha _t\mathrm{im}d^{}.$$

Choose $`X_{s,t}\mathrm{Vect}(\mathrm{\Sigma })`$ such that $`\iota (X_{s,t})\omega _{s,t}=\alpha _t`$ and define $`\psi _{s,t}\mathrm{Diff}(\mathrm{\Sigma })`$ by

$$_s\psi _{s,t}=X_{s,t}\psi _{s,t},\psi _{0,t}=\psi _t.$$

Then $`_s(\psi _{s,t}^{}{}_{}{}^{}\omega _{s,t})=0`$ and $`\psi _{0,t}^{}{}_{}{}^{}\omega _{0,t}=\omega `$. Hence $`\psi _{s,t}^{}{}_{}{}^{}\omega _{s,t}=\omega `$ for all $`s`$ and $`t`$. Moreover, $`\psi _{s,0}=\mathrm{id}`$ and $`\psi _{s,1}=\psi `$ for all $`s`$. Hence $`t\psi _{1,t}`$ is the required symplectic isotopy from $`\mathrm{id}`$ to $`\psi `$. $`\mathrm{}`$

###### Lemma A.3

Let $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ be a compact oriented Riemann surface, $`S\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ be an embedded closed disc, and $`\omega _0,\omega _1\mathrm{\Omega }^2(\mathrm{\Sigma })`$ be two area forms such that

$$_\mathrm{\Sigma }(\omega _1\omega _0)=_S(\omega _1\omega _0)=0.$$

Then there exists a smooth isotopy $`\psi _t:\mathrm{\Sigma }\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ such that

$$\psi _0=\mathrm{id},\psi _{1}^{}{}_{}{}^{}\omega _1=\omega _0,\psi _t(S)=S$$

for every $`t[0,1]`$.

Proof:  The result follows again from Moser isotopy. We prove that there exists a $`1`$-form $`\alpha \mathrm{\Omega }^1(\mathrm{\Sigma })`$ such that

$$d\alpha +\omega _1\omega _0=0,\alpha |_{TS}=0.$$
(45)
To see this, choose any $`1`$-form $`\beta \mathrm{\Omega }^1(\mathrm{\Sigma })`$ such that $`d\beta +\omega _1\omega _0=0`$. Then the integral of $`\beta `$ over $`S`$ vanishes and so $`\beta |_S`$ is exact. Hence there exists a smooth function $`f:\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ such that $`(\beta df)|_{TS}=0`$ and the $`1`$-form $`\alpha :=\beta df`$ satisfies (45). Now let $`\omega _t:=t\omega _1+(1t)\omega _0`$ and define $`X_t\mathrm{Vect}(\mathrm{\Sigma })`$ and $`\psi _t\mathrm{Diff}(\mathrm{\Sigma })`$ by

$$_t\psi _t=X_t\psi _t,\iota (X_t)\omega _t=\alpha ,\psi _0=\mathrm{id}.$$

Then $`X_t`$ is tangent to $`S`$ for every $`t`$. Hence $`\psi _t`$ preserves $`S`$ and $`\psi _{t}^{}{}_{}{}^{}\omega _t=\omega _0`$ for every $`t`$. This proves the lemma. $`\mathrm{}`$

###### Lemma A.4

Let $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ be a compact connected Riemann surface and $`S,S^{}\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ be two embedded discs. Then there exists a diffeomorphism $`f:\mathrm{\Sigma }\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ such that $`f`$ is isotopic to the identity and $`f(S)=S^{}`$.

Proof:  Choose orientation preserving embeddings $`\varphi ,\varphi ^{}:B_1\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ such that $`\varphi (B_1)=S`$ and $`\varphi ^{}(B_1)=S^{}`$. We prove the result in four steps.

Step 1: There exists a diffeomorphism $`g:\mathrm{\Sigma }\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ that is isotopic to the identity and satisfies $`g\varphi (0)=\varphi ^{}(0)`$.

Choose a path $`\gamma :[0,1]\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ such that $`\gamma (0)=\varphi (0)`$ and $`\gamma (1)=\varphi ^{}(0)`$. Next choose a smooth family of vector fields $`X_t\mathrm{Vect}(\mathrm{\Sigma })`$ such that $`X_t(\gamma (t))=\dot{\gamma }(t)`$ for every $`t`$. Then the diffeomorphisms $`g_t:\mathrm{\Sigma }\mathrm{\Sigma }`$, defined by $`_tg_t=X_tg_t`$ and $`g_0=\mathrm{id}`$, satisfy $`g_t(\gamma (0))=\gamma (t)`$ for every $`t`$. Hence $`g_1`$ satisfies the requirements of Step 1.

Step 2: $`\varphi `$ can be chosen such that $`d(g\varphi )(0)=d\varphi ^{}(0)`$.

We prove that, for every matrix $`\mathrm{\Psi }^{2\times 2}`$ such that $`det(\mathrm{\Psi })>0`$, there exists a diffeomorphism $`\psi :B_1B_1`$ such that $`d\psi (0)=\mathrm{\Psi }`$. To see this, let

$$P:=(\mathrm{\Psi }^T\mathrm{\Psi })^{1/2}$$

and choose $`Q\mathrm{SO}(2)`$ and $`a,b>0`$ such that $`QPQ^T=\mathrm{diag}(a,b)`$. Next choose smooth functions $`\alpha ,\beta :[0,1][0,1]`$ such that $`\dot{\alpha }(r)>0`$ and $`\dot{\beta }(r)>0`$ for all $`r`$ and

$$\alpha (r)=\{\begin{array}{cc}\hfill ar,& \text{for }r\text{ near }0,\hfill \\ \hfill r,& \text{for }r\text{ near }1,\hfill \end{array}\beta (r)=\{\begin{array}{cc}\hfill br,& \text{for }r\text{ near }0,\hfill \\ \hfill r,& \text{for }r\text{ near }1.\hfill \end{array}$$

Then the diffeomorphism $`\psi _0:B_1B_1`$ defined by

$$\psi _0(x,y)=(\alpha (|x|)x/|x|,\beta (|y|)y/|y|)$$

satisfies $`d\psi _0(0)=\mathrm{diag}(a,b)`$. Hence the function

$$\psi (z):=\mathrm{\Psi }(\mathrm{\Psi }^T\mathrm{\Psi })^{1/2}Q^T\psi _0(Qz)$$

is a diffeomorphism of $`B_1`$ and satisfies $`d\psi (0)=\mathrm{\Psi }`$. To prove Step 2, let $`\mathrm{\Psi }`$ be defined by

$$d(g\varphi )(0)\mathrm{\Psi }=d\varphi ^{}(0),$$

choose a diffeomorphism $`\psi :B_1B_1`$ such that $`d\psi (0)=\mathrm{\Psi }`$, and replace $`\varphi `$ by $`\varphi \psi `$.

Step 3: $`\varphi `$ can be chosen such that $`g\varphi (z)=\varphi ^{}(z)`$ for $`|z|`$ sufficiently small.

By Step 2, we may assume that $`d(g\varphi )(0)=d\varphi ^{}(0)`$. Choose $`\delta >0`$ such that $`\varphi ^{}(B_\delta )g(S)`$ and consider the function

$$h:=\varphi ^1g^1\varphi ^{}:B_\delta B_1.$$

This function is an embedding and satisfies $`dh(0)=1\mathrm{l}`$. Choose a smooth cutoff function $`\beta :[0,1][0,1]`$ such that $`\beta (r)=1`$ for $`r1/3`$ and $`\beta (r)=0`$ for $`r2/3`$. For $`0<\epsilon <\delta `$ define $`h_\epsilon :B_1B_1`$ by

$$h_\epsilon (z):=\beta (|z|/\epsilon )h(z)+(1\beta (|z|/\epsilon ))z.$$

Then $`h_\epsilon `$ is a diffeomorphism for $`\epsilon >0`$ sufficiently small and $`g\varphi h_\epsilon (z)=\varphi ^{}(z)`$ for $`|z|<\epsilon /3`$. Hence the embedding $`\varphi h_\epsilon `$ satisfies the requirements of Step 3 for $`\epsilon >0`$ sufficiently small.

Step 4: We prove the lemma.

By Step 3, there exist embeddings $`\varphi ,\varphi ^{}:B_1\mathrm{\Sigma }`$, a constant $`\epsilon >0`$, and a diffeomorphism $`g:\mathrm{\Sigma }\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ such that $`g`$ is isotopic to the identity and

$$|z|<\epsilon g\varphi (z)=\varphi ^{}(z).$$

Choose $`\delta >0`$ such that $`\varphi `$ and $`\varphi ^{}`$ extend to embeddings of $`B_{1+\delta }`$ into $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$. Choose a smooth function $`\rho :[0,1+\delta ][0,1+\delta ]`$ such that $`\dot{\rho }(r)>0`$ for every $`r`$ and

$$\rho (r)=\{\begin{array}{cc}\hfill r,& \text{for }r\epsilon /2,\hfill \\ \hfill 1,& \text{for }r=\epsilon ,\hfill \\ \hfill r,& \text{for }r1+\delta /2.\hfill \end{array}$$

Let $`f:\mathrm{\Sigma }\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ be given by

$$f(\varphi (z)):=\varphi (\rho (|z|)z/|z|)$$

for $`zB_{1+\delta }`$ and by $`f=\mathrm{id}`$ in $`\mathrm{\Sigma }\varphi (B_{1+\delta })`$. Then $`f`$ is isotopic to the identity and $`f\varphi (B_\epsilon )=S`$. Similarly, there exists a diffeomorphism $`f^{}:\mathrm{\Sigma }\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ that is isotopic to the identity and satisfies $`f^{}\varphi ^{}(B_\epsilon )=S^{}`$. The diffeomorphism $`f^{}gf^1`$ is isotopic to the identity and maps $`S`$ to $`S^{}`$. This proves the lemma. $`\mathrm{}`$

Proof of Proposition A.1: By Lemma A.4, there exists a diffeomorphism $`f:\mathrm{\Sigma }\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ that is isotopic to the identity and satisfies $`f(S)=S^{}.`$ Since $`S`$ and $`S^{}`$ have the same area, we obtain

$$_\mathrm{\Sigma }(f^{}\omega \omega )=_S(f^{}\omega \omega )=0.$$

By Lemma A.3, there exists a diffeomorphism $`\psi :\mathrm{\Sigma }\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ that is isotopic to the identity and satisfies

$$\psi ^{}f^{}\omega =\omega ,\psi (S)=S.$$

Hence $`\varphi :=f\psi `$ is isotopic to the identity and

$$\varphi ^{}\omega =\omega ,\varphi (S)=S^{}.$$

By Lemma A.2, $`\varphi `$ is symplectically isotopic to the identity. Let $`t\varphi _t`$ be a symplectic isotopy such that $`\varphi _0=\mathrm{id}`$ and $`\varphi _1=\varphi `$. Then the embedded discs $`S_t:=\varphi _t(S)`$ all have the same area and $`S_0=S`$, $`S_1=S^{}`$. Hence $`tS_t`$ is an exact Lagrangian path. By Lemma 2.3, there exists a Hamiltonian isotopy $`t\psi _t`$ of $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ such that $`\psi _t(S_0)=S_t`$ for all $`t`$. Hence $`\psi _1(S)=S^{}`$ and this proves the proposition. $`\mathrm{}`$