Quasi-morphisms on cotangent bundles and symplectic homogenization

Abstract

For a class of closed manifolds N, we construct a family of functions on the Hamiltonian group G of the cotangent bundle T*N. These restrict to homogeneous quasi-morphisms on the subgroup generated by Hamiltonians with support in a given cotangent ball bundle. The family is parametrized by the first real cohomology of N, and in the case N=T^n, it coincides with Viterbo's symplectic homogenization operator. These functions have applications to the algebraic and geometric structure of G and its subgroups, to symplectic rigidity, and to Aubry-Mather and weak KAM theory.