Hamiltonian loops from the ergodic point of view

Abstract

The paper provides a link between ergodic theory and symplectic topology. A classical notion of ergodic theory is a skew product map associated with a loop in a group of transformations. We study skew products which come from loops in the group of Hamiltonian diffeomorphisms of a symplectic manifold. Our main question is which homotopy classes of loops can be represented by strictly ergodic skew products. We prove an existence result, and find an obstruction which arises from Hofer's geometry on the group of Hamiltonian diffeomorphisms.

a reference added, minor corrections; LATEX, 21 pages