A HYDRODYNAMICAL HOMOTOPY CO-MOMENTUM MAP AND A MULTISYMPLECTIC INTERPRETATION OF HIGHER-ORDER LINKING NUMBERS

Abstract

Abstract In this paper a homotopy co-momentum map (à la Callies, Frégier, Rogers and Zambon) transgressing to the standard hydrodynamical co-momentum map of Arnol’d, Marsden, Weinstein and others is constructed and then generalized to a special class of Riemannian manifolds. Also, a covariant phase space interpretation of the coadjoint orbits associated to the Euler evolution for perfect fluids, and in particular of Brylinski’s manifold of smooth oriented knots, is discussed. As an application of the above homotopy co-momentum map, a reinterpretation of the (Massey) higher-order linking numbers in terms of conserved quantities within the multisymplectic framework is provided and knot-theoretic analogues of first integrals in involution are determined.