Periodic orbits in virtually contact structures

Abstract

We prove that certain non-exact magnetic Hamiltonian systems on products of closed hyperbolic surfaces and with a potential function of large oscillation admit non-constant contractible periodic solutions of energy below the Ma\~n\'e critical value. For that we develop a theory of holomorphic curves in symplectizations of non-compact contact manifolds that arise as the covering space of a virtually contact structure whose contact form is bounded with all derivatives up to order three.