Homology class of a Lagrangian Klein bottle

It is shown that an embedded Lagrangian Klein bottle represents a non-trivial mod 2 homology class in a compact symplectic four-manifold $(X,\omega)$ with $c_1(X)\cdot[\omega]>0$. (In versions 1 and 2, the last assumption was missing. A counterexample to this general claim and the first proof of the corrected result have been found by Vsevolod Shevchishin.) As a corollary one obtains that the Klein bottle does not admit a Lagrangian embedding into the standard symplectic four-space.Comment: Version 3 - completely rewritten to correct a mistake; Version 4 - minor edits, added references; AMSLaTeX, 6 page

On the Use of Minimum Volume Ellipsoids and Symplectic Capacities for Studying Classical Uncertainties for Joint Position-Momentum Measurements

We study the minimum volume ellipsoid estimator associates to a cloud of points in phase space. Using as a natural measure of uncertainty the symplectic capacity of the covariance ellipsoid we find that classical uncertainties obey relations similar to those found in non-standard quantum mechanics

Quantum Blobs

Quantum blobs are the smallest phase space units of phase space compatible with the uncertainty principle of quantum mechanics and having the symplectic group as group of symmetries. Quantum blobs are in a bijective correspondence with the squeezed coherent states from standard quantum mechanics, of which they are a phase space picture. This allows us to propose a substitute for phase space in quantum mechanics. We study the relationship between quantum blobs with a certain class of level sets defined by Fermi for the purpose of representing geometrically quantum states.Comment: Prepublication. Dedicated to Basil Hile

On the connection between the number of nodal domains on quantum graphs and the stability of graph partitions

Courant theorem provides an upper bound for the number of nodal domains of eigenfunctions of a wide class of Laplacian-type operators. In particular, it holds for generic eigenfunctions of quantum graph. The theorem stipulates that, after ordering the eigenvalues as a non decreasing sequence, the number of nodal domains $\nu_n$ of the $n$-th eigenfunction satisfies $n\ge \nu_n$. Here, we provide a new interpretation for the Courant nodal deficiency $d_n = n-\nu_n$ in the case of quantum graphs. It equals the Morse index --- at a critical point --- of an energy functional on a suitably defined space of graph partitions. Thus, the nodal deficiency assumes a previously unknown and profound meaning --- it is the number of unstable directions in the vicinity of the critical point corresponding to the $n$-th eigenfunction. To demonstrate this connection, the space of graph partitions and the energy functional are defined and the corresponding critical partitions are studied in detail.Comment: 22 pages, 6 figure

Symplectic geometry of quantum noise

We discuss a quantum counterpart, in the sense of the Berezin-Toeplitz quantization, of certain constraints on Poisson brackets coming from "hard" symplectic geometry. It turns out that they can be interpreted in terms of the quantum noise of observables and their joint measurements in operational quantum mechanics. Our findings include various geometric mechanisms of quantum noise production and a noise-localization uncertainty relation. The methods involve Floer theory and Poisson bracket invariants originated in function theory on symplectic manifolds.Comment: Revised version, 57 pages, 3 figures. Incorporates arXiv:1203.234

A beginner's introduction to Fukaya categories

The goal of these notes is to give a short introduction to Fukaya categories and some of their applications. The first half of the text is devoted to a brief review of Lagrangian Floer (co)homology and product structures. Then we introduce the Fukaya category (informally and without a lot of the necessary technical detail), and briefly discuss algebraic concepts such as exact triangles and generators. Finally, we mention wrapped Fukaya categories and outline a few applications to symplectic topology, mirror symmetry and low-dimensional topology. This text is based on a series of lectures given at a Summer School on Contact and Symplectic Topology at Universit\'e de Nantes in June 2011.Comment: 42 pages, 13 figure

Imprints of the Quantum World in Classical Mechanics

The imprints left by quantum mechanics in classical (Hamiltonian) mechanics are much more numerous than is usually believed. We show Using no physical hypotheses) that the Schroedinger equation for a nonrelativistic system of spinless particles is a classical equation which is equivalent to Hamilton's equations.Comment: Paper submitted to Foundations of Physic