This thesis consists of two parts, which can be read separately. In the first part we study aspects of topological field theories. We show how to topologically twist three-dimensional N=2 supersymmetric Chern-Simons theory using a contact structure on the underlying manifold. This gives us a formulation of Chern-Simons theory together with a set of auxiliary fields and an odd symmetry. For Seifert manifolds, we show how to use this odd symmetry to localize the path integral of Chern-Simons theory. The formulation of three-dimensional Chern-Simons theory using a contact structure admits natural generalizations to higher dimensions. We introduce and study these theories. The focus is on the five-dimensional theory, which can be understood as a topologically twisted version of N=1 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory. When formulated on contact manifolds that are circle fibrations over a symplectic manifold, it localizes to contact instantons. For the theory on the five-sphere, we show that the perturbative part of the partition function is given by a matrix model. In the second part of the thesis, we study supersymmetric sigma models in the Hamiltonian formalism, both in a classical and in a quantum mechanical setup. We argue that the so called Chiral de Rham complex, which is a sheaf of vertex algebras, is a natural framework to understand quantum aspects of supersymmetric sigma models in the Hamiltonian formalism. We show how a class of currents which generate symmetry algebras for the classical sigma model can be defined within the Chiral de Rham complex framework, and for a six-dimensional Calabi-Yau manifold we calculate the equal-time commutators between the currents and show that they generate the Odake algebra.

L'homologie de contact est un invariant homologique pour variétés de contact dont la définition est basée sur l'utilisation de courbes holomorphes. Ce travail de thèse concerne l'étude de cet invariant dans le cas des produits de contact. / Doctorat en Sciences / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Turnouts (Switches & Crossings) are important components in railway networks, as they provide the necessary flexibility for train operations by allowing trains to change among the tracks. But the turnout’s geometry with discontinuity in rail profiles and lack of transition curve causes additional wear both on track and on vehicle. The main goal of this MSc thesis is to investigate the influence of turnouts on wheel wear of a freight vehicle. This will be obtained by simulations in the commercial MBS software GENSYS. The wheel-rail contact is modelled according to Hertz’s theory and Kalker’s simplified theory, with the FASTSIM algorithm, and the wear calculations are performed according to Archard’s law. Wheel wear is estimated by considering variations in parameters which have effect on wheel-rail contact. All these variations are common in daily rail operation, and they are caused by it, i.e. worn wheel profiles, worn crossing nose and different stiffness of the stock and the switch rails at the beginning of the turnout. Moreover, the wheel wear is calculated for both possible directions which a vehicle can run, the diverging and the straight direction of the turnout. Especially for the straight direction, various running speeds have been tested as the speed limit when the vehicle follows the straight direction is higher than for the diverging part. Running with worn wheel profiles has the greatest impact in terms of increasing the wheel wear, especially on the outer part of wheel tread. In addition, the worn crossing nose results in increased wheel wear in this area. The results of the simulations concerning the different stiffness showed that the wheel wear caused by the contact of wheel and stock rail increases whereas the wear caused by the contact with the switch rail is kept at about the same level or decreases. It is concluded that turnouts have a significant impact on wheel wear, mainly because of the discontinuity in rail geometry and all the investigated parameters increase this impact. Moreover, great differences in wear values for areas close to each other are observed, mainly because of the wear coefficient values chosen in Archard’s wear map.

In dieser Dissertation beschäftigen wir uns mit angepassten Zusammenhängen und ihren (horizontalen) Dirac-Operatoren auf strikt pseudokonvexen CR-Mannigfaltigkeiten. Einen Zusammenhang nennen wir dann angepasst, wenn er die relevanten Daten parallelisiert. Wir beschreiben den Raum der angepassten Zusammenhänge, indem wir ihre Torsionstensoren studieren, von denen gewisse Teile durch die Geometrie der Mannigfaltigkeit festgelegt sind, während andere frei wählbar sind. Als Anwendung betrachten wir die Eigenschaften der Dirac-Operatoren, die zu diesen Zusammenhängen gehören. Weiter betrachten wir horizontale Dirac-Operatoren, die nur in Richtung des horizontalen Bündels H ableiten. Diese Operatoren sind besser an die Sub-Riemannsche Struktur einer CR-Mannigfaltigkeit angepasst als die vollen Dirac-Operatoren. Wir diskutieren, wann diese Operatoren formal selbstadjungiert sind und beweisen eine Weitzenböck-Typ-Formel. Wir konzentrieren uns dann auf den horizontalen Dirac-Operator zum Tanaka-Webster-Zusammenhang. Dieser ändert sich konform kovariant, wenn wir die Kontaktform konform ändern. Für diesen Operator betrachten wir weiterhin zwei Beispiele: Wir betrachten S^1-Bündel über Kähler-Mannigfaltigkeiten, insbesondere berechnen wir für Sphären einen Teil des Spektrums. Außerdem betrachten wir kompakte Quotienten der Heisenberggruppe und berechnen hier in den Dimensionen 3 und 5 das volle Spektrum. Die horizontalen Dirac-Operatoren sind nicht mehr elliptisch, sondern „elliptisch in Richtung von H“. Mithilfe des Heisenbergkalküls stellen wir fest, dass die horizontalen Dirac-Operatoren nicht hypoelliptisch sind. Im Fall des Tanaka-Webster-Zusammenhangs lässt sich aber zeigen, dass der zugehörige Operator auf gewissen Teilen des Spinorbündels hypoelliptisch ist. Dies genügt, um zu beweisen, dass er (nun auf dem gesamten Spinorbündel) ein reines Punktspektrum hat und die Eigenräume, bis auf den Kern, endlich-dimensional sind und aus glatten Eigenspinoren bestehen. / In the present thesis, we study adapted connections and their (horizontal) Dirac operators on strictly pseudoconvex CR manifolds. An adapted connection is one that parallelises the relevant data. We describe the space of adapted connections through their torsion tensors, certain parts of which are determined by the geometry of the manifold, while others may be freely chosen. As an application, we study the properties of the Dirac operators induced by these connections. We further consider horizontal Dirac operators, which only derive in the direction of the horizontal bundle H. These operators are more adapted to the essentially sub-Riemannian structure of a CR manifold than the full Dirac operators. We discuss the question of their self-adjointness and prove a Weitzenböck type formula for these operators. Focusing on the horizontal Dirac operator associated with the Tanaka-Webster connection, we show that this operator changes in a covariant way if we change the contact form conformally. Moreover, for this operator we discuss two examples: On S^1-bundles over Kähler manifolds, we can compute part of the spectrum and for compact quotients of the Heisenberg group, we determine the whole spectrum in dimensions three and five. The horizontal Dirac operators are not elliptic, but rather "elliptic in some directions". We review the Heisenberg Calculus for such operators and find that in general, the horizontal Dirac operators are not hypoelliptic. However, in the case of the Tanaka-Webster connection, the associated horizontal Dirac operator is hypoelliptic on certain parts of the spinor bundle and this is enough to prove that its spectrum consists only of eigenvalues and except for the kernel, the corresponding eigenspaces are finite-dimensional spaces of smooth sections.

In dieser Dissertation werden Kontaktstrukturen auf beliebigen differenzierbaren Mannigfaltigkeiten ungerader Dimension untersucht. Dies geschiet vermöge der Rabinowitz-Floer-Homologie (RFH), welche 2009 von Cieliebak und Frauenfelder eingeführt wurde. Ein großer Teil der Arbeit widmet sich den technischen Problemen bei der Definition von RFH. Insbesondere wird die Transversalität für die benötigten Modulräume gezeigt. In einem weiteren Abschnitt wird bewiesen, dass RFH im wesentlichen invariant unter subkrittischer Henkelanklebung ist. Schließlich enthält die Arbeit die Berechnung von RFH für einige Brieskorn-Mannigfaltigkeiten. Die dabei gewonnenen Resultate werden dazu verwendet zu zeigen, dass es auf jeder Mannigfaltigkeit, welche füllbare Kontaktstukturen zulässt, entweder unendlich viele verschiedene füllbare Kontaktstrukturen gibt, oder eine Kontaktstruktur mit unendlich vielen verschiedenen Füllungen oder das für alle füllbaren Kontaktstrukturen die RFH von unendlicher Dimension ist für alle Grade. / This thesis considers fillable contact structures on odd-dimensional manifolds. For that purpose, Rabinowitz-Floer homology (RFH) is used which was introduced by Cieliebak and Frauenfelder in 2009. A major part of the thesis is devoted to technical problems in the definition of RFH. In particular, it is shown that the moduli spaces involved are cut out transversally. Moreover, it is proved that RFH is essentially invariant under subcritical handle attachment. Finally, RFH is calculated for some Brieskorn manifolds. The obtained results are then used to show for every manifold, which supports fillable contact structures, that there exist either infinitely many different fillable contact structures, or one contact structure with infinitely many different fillings or for every fillable contact structure holds that RFH is infinite dimensional in every degree.

Generalized geometry of type B_n is the study of geometric structures in T+T^*+1, the sum of the tangent and cotangent bundles of a manifold and a trivial rank 1 bundle. The symmetries of this theory include, apart from B-fields, the novel A-fields. The relation between B_n-geometry and usual generalized geometry is stated via generalized reduction. We show that it is possible to twist T+T^*+1 by choosing a closed 2-form F and a 3-form H such that dH+F²=0. This motivates the definition of an odd exact Courant algebroid. When twisting, the differential on forms gets twisted by d+Fτ+H. We compute the cohomology of this differential, give some examples, and state its relation with T-duality when F is integral. We define B_n-generalized complex structures (B_n-gcs), which exist both in even and odd dimensional manifolds. We show that complex, symplectic, cosymplectic and normal almost contact structures are examples of B_n-gcs. A B_n-gcs is equivalent to a decomposition (T+T^*+1)_ℂ= L + L + U. We show that there is a differential operator on the exterior bundle of L+U, which turns L+U into a Lie algebroid by considering the derived bracket. We state and prove the Maurer-Cartan equation for a B_n-gcs. We then work on surfaces. By the irreducibility of the spinor representations for signature (n+1,n), there is no distinction between even and odd B_n-gcs, so the type change phenomenon already occurs on surfaces. We deal with normal forms and L+U-cohomology. We finish by defining G²₂-structures on 3-manifolds, a structure with no analogue in usual generalized geometry. We prove an analogue of the Moser argument and describe the cone of G²₂-structures in cohomology.

Le sujet de cette thèse est la question du nombre minimal d'orbites de Reeb distinctes sur une variété de contact qui est le bord d'une variété symplectique compacte.<p>L'homologie symplectique $S^1$-équivariante positive est un des outils principaux de cette thèse; elle est construite à partir d'orbites périodiques de champs de vecteurs hamiltoniens sur une variété symplectique<p>dont le bord est la variété de contact considérée.<p>Nous analysons la relation entre les différentes variantes d'homologie symplectique d'une variété symplectique exacte compacte (domaine de Liouville) et les orbites de Reeb de son bord.<p>Nous démontrons certaines propriétés de ces homologies.<p>Pour un domaine de Liouville plongé dans un autre, nous construisons un morphisme entre leurs homologies.<p>Nous étudions ensuite l'invariance de ces homologies par rapport au choix de la forme de contact sur le bord.<p>Nous utilisons l'homologie symplectique $S^1$-équivariante positive pour donner une nouvelle preuve d'un théorème de Ekeland et Lasry<p>sur le nombre minimal d'orbites de Reeb distinctes sur certaines hypersurfaces dans $R^{2n}$.<p>Nous indiquons comment étendre au cas de certaines hypersurfaces dans certains fibrés en droites complexes négatifs.<p>Nous donnons une caractérisation et une nouvelle façon de calculer l'indice de Conley-Zehnder généralisé, défini par Robbin et Salamon pour tout chemin de matrices symplectiques.<p>Ceci nous a mené à développer de nouvelles formes normales de matrices symplectiques.<p>/<p>This thesis deals with the question of the minimal number of distinct periodic Reeb orbits on a contact manifold which is the boundary of a compact symplectic manifold.<p>The positive $S^1$-equivariant symplectic homology is one of the main tools considered in this thesis.<p>It is built from periodic orbits of Hamiltonian vector fields in a symplectic manifold whose boundary is the given contact manifold.<p>Our first result describes the relation between the symplectic homologies of an exact compact symplectic manifold with contact type boundary (also called Liouville domain), and the periodic Reeb orbits on the boundary.<p>We then prove some properties of these homologies.<p>For a Liouville domain embedded into another one, we construct a morphism between their homologies.<p>We study the invariance of the homologies with respect to the choice of the contact form on the boundary.<p>We use the positive $S^1$-equivariant symplectic homology to give a new proof of a Theorem by Ekeland and Lasry about the minimal number of distinct periodic Reeb orbits on some hypersurfaces in $R^{2n}$.<p>We indicate how it extends to some hypersurfaces in some negative line bundles.<p>We also give a characterisation and a new way to compute the generalized Conley-Zehnder index defined by Robbin and Salamon for any path of symplectic matrices.<p>A tool for this is a new analysis of normal forms for symplectic matrices. / Doctorat en Sciences / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

The 4-genus of a knot in S3 is an important measure of complexity, related to the unknotting number. A fundamental result used to study the 4-genus and related invariants of homology classes is the Thom conjecture, proved by Kronheimer-Mrowka, and its symplectic extension due to Ozsv´ath-Szab´o, which say that closed symplectic surfaces minimize genus. In this thesis, we prove a relative version of the symplectic capping theorem. More precisely, suppose (X, ω) is a symplectic 4-manifold with contact type bounday ∂X and Σ is a symplectic surface in X such that ∂Σ is a transverse knot in ∂X. We show that there is a closed symplectic 4-manifold Y with a closed symplectic submanifold S such that the pair (X, Σ) embeds symplectically into (Y, S). This gives a proof of the relative version of Symplectic Thom Conjecture. We use this to study 4-genus of fibered knots in S3 . We also prove a relative version of the sufficiency part of Giroux’s criterion for Stein fillability, namely, we show that a fibered knot whose mondoromy is a product of positive Dehn twists bounds a symplectic surface in a Stein filling. We use this to study 4-genus of fibered knots in S3 . Using this result, we give a criterion for quasipostive fibered knots to be strongly quasipositive. Symplectic convexity disc bundles is a useful tool in constructing symplectic fillings of contact manifolds. We show the symplectic convexity of the unit disc bundle in a Hermitian holomorphic line bundle over a Riemann surface.