Fractional monodromy: parallel transport of homology cycles

Abstract

A 2n-dimensional completely integrable system gives rise to a singular fibration whose generic fiber is the n-torus Tn. In the classical setting, it is possible to define a parallel transport of elements of the fundamental group of a fiber along a path, when the path describes a loop around a singular fiber, it defines an automorphism of π1 (Tn) called monodromy transformation [J.J. Duistermaat, On global action-angle coordinates, Communications on Pure and Applied Mathematics 33 (6) (1980) 687-706]. Some systems give rise to a non-classical setting, in which the path can wind around a singular fiber only by crossing a codimension 1 submanifold of special singular fibers (a wall), in this case a non-classical parallel transport can be defined on a subgroup of the fundamental group. This gives rise to what is known as monodromy with fractional coefficients [N. Nekhoroshev, D. Sadovskiì, B. Zhilinskiì, Fractional monodromy of resonant classical and quantum oscillators, Comptes Rendus Mathematique 335 (11) (2002) 985-988]. In this article, we give a precise meaning to the non-classical parallel transport. In particular we show that it is a homologic process and not a homotopic one. We justify this statement by describing the type of singular fibers that generate a wall that can be crossed, by describing the parallel transport in a semi-local neighbourhood of the wall of singularities, and by producing a family of 4-dimensional examples. © 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.