Symplectic capacities

This chapter returns to the problems which were formulated in Chapter 1, namely the Weinstein conjecture, the nonsqueezing theorem, and symplectic rigidity. These questions are all related to the existence and properties of symplectic capacities. The chapter begins by discussing some of the consequences which follow from the existence of capacities. In particular, it establishes symplectic rigidity and discusses the relation between capacities and the Hofer metric on the group of Hamiltonian symplectomorphisms. The chapter then introduces the Hofer–Zehnder capacity, and shows that its existence gives rise to a proof of the Weinstein conjecture for hypersurfaces of Euclidean space. The last section contains a proof that the Hofer–Zehnder capacity satisfies the required axioms. This proof translates the Hofer–Zehnder variational argument into the setting of (finite-dimensional) generating functions.