Hutchings' inequality for the Calabi invariant revisited with an application to pseudo-rotations

Abstract

In [Hut16], Hutchings uses embedded contact homology to show the following for area-preserving disc diffeomorphisms that are a rotation near the boundary of the disc: If the asymptotic mean action on the boundary is greater than the Calabi invariant, then the infimum of the mean action of the periodic points is less than or equal to the Calabi invariant. In this article, we extend this to all area-preserving disc diffeomorphisms. Our strategy is to extend the diffeomorphism to a larger disc with nice properties and apply Hutchings' theorem. As an application, we show that the Calabi invariant of any smooth pseudo-rotation is equal to its rotation number.