Symplectic torus actions with coisotropic principal orbits

Abstract

In this paper we completely classify symplectic actions of a torus $T$ on a compact connected symplectic manifold $(M, σ)$ when some, hence every, principal orbit is a coisotropic submanifold of $(M, σ)$. That is, we construct an explicit model, defined in terms of certain invariants, of the manifold, the torus action and the symplectic form. The invariants are invariants of the topology of the manifold, of the torus action, or of the symplectic form. In order to deal with symplectic actions which are not Hamiltonian, we develop new techniques, extending the theory of Atiyah, Guillemin-Sternberg, Delzant, and Benoist. More specifically, we prove that there is a well-defined notion of constant vector fields on the orbit space $M/T$. Using a generalization of the Tietze-Nakajima theorem to what we call $V$-parallel spaces, we obtain that $M/T$ is isomorphic to the Cartesian product of a Delzant polytope with a torus. We then construct special lifts of the constant vector fields on $M/T$, in terms of which the model of the symplectic manifold with the torus action is defined.