A symplectic slice theorem

Abstract

We provide a model for an open invariant neighborhood of any orbit in a symplectic manifold endowed with a canonical proper symmetry. Our results generalize the constructions of Marle and Guillemin and Sternberg for canonical symmetries that have an associated momentum map. In these papers the momentum map played a crucial role in the construction of the tubular model. The present work shows that in the construction of the tubular model it can be used the so called Chu map instead, which exists for any canonical action, unlike the momentum map. Hamilton's equations for any invariant Hamiltonian function take on a particularly simple form in these tubular variables. As an application we will find situations, that we will call tubewise Hamiltonian, in which the existence of a standard momentum map in invariant neighborhoods is guaranteed.