The Symplectic Geometry of Polygons in the $3$-Sphere

http://dx.doi.org/10.4153/CJM-2002-002-1
Canad. J. Math. 54(2002), 30-54

  Published:2002-02-01
 Printed: Feb 2002

We study the symplectic geometry of the moduli spaces $M_r=M_r(\s^3)$ of closed $n$-gons with fixed side-lengths in the $3$-sphere. We prove that these moduli spaces have symplectic structures obtained by reduction of the fusion product of $n$ conjugacy classes in $\SU(2)$ by the diagonal conjugation action of $\SU(2)$. Here the fusion product of $n$ conjugacy classes is a Hamiltonian quasi-Poisson $\SU(2)$-manifold in the sense of \cite{AKSM}. An integrable Hamiltonian system is constructed on $M_r$ in which the Hamiltonian flows are given by bending polygons along a maximal collection of nonintersecting diagonals. Finally, we show the symplectic structure on $M_r$ relates to the symplectic structure obtained from gauge-theoretic description of $M_r$. The results of this paper are analogues for the $3$-sphere of results obtained for $M_r(\h^3)$, the moduli space of $n$-gons with fixed side-lengths in hyperbolic $3$-space \cite{KMT}, and for $M_r(\E^3)$, the moduli space of $n$-gons with fixed side-lengths in $\E^3$ \cite{KM1}.