Proper Groupoids and Momentum Maps: Linearization, Affinity and Convexity

Abstract

We show that proper Lie groupoids are locally linearizable. As a consequence, the orbit space of a proper Lie groupoid is a smooth orbispace (a Hausdorff space which locally looks like the quotient of a vector space by a linear compact Lie group action). In the case of proper (quasi-)symplectic groupoids, the orbit space admits a natural integral affine structure, which makes it into an affine orbifold with locally convex polyhedral boundary, and the local structure near each boundary point is isomorphic to that of a Weyl chamber of a compact Lie group. We then apply these results to the study of momentum maps of Hamiltonian actions of proper (quasi-)symplectic groupoids, and show that these momentum maps preserve natural transverse affine structures with local convexity properties. Many convexity theorems in the literature can be recovered from this last statement and some elementary results about affine maps.