Speyer and Sturmfels associated Gröbner toric degenerations $\mathrm{Gr}_2(\mathbb{C}^n)^{\mathcal{T}}$ of $\mathrm{Gr}_2(\mathbb{C}^n)$ with each trivalent tree $\mathcal{T}$ having $n$ leaves. These degenerations induce toric degenerations $M_{\mathbf{r}}^{\mathcal{T}}$ of $M_{\mathbf{r}}$, the space of $n$ ordered, weighted (by $\mathbf{r}$) points on the projective line. Our goal in this paper is to give a geometric (Euclidean polygon) description of the toric fibers and describe the action of the compact part of the torus as "bendings of polygons". We prove the conjecture of Foth and Hu that the toric fibers are homeomorphic to the spaces defined by Kamiyama and Yoshida.

We address the problem of computing the fundamental group of a symplectic $S^1$-manifold for non-Hamiltonian actions on compact manifolds, and for Hamiltonian actions on non-compact manifolds with a proper moment map. We generalize known results for compact manifolds equipped with a Hamiltonian $S^1$-action. Several examples are presented to illustrate our main results.

A theorem of Tietze and Nakajima, from 1928, asserts that if a subset $X$ of $\mathbb{R}^n$ is closed, connected, and locally convex, then it is convex. We give an analogous ``local to global convexity" theorem when the inclusion map of $X$ to $\mathbb{R}^n$ is replaced by a map from a topological space $X$ to $\mathbb{R}^n$ that satisfies certain local properties. Our motivation comes from the Condevaux--Dazord--Molino proof of the Atiyah--Guillemin--Sternberg convexity theorem in symplectic geometry.

In this paper, we characterize unitary representations of $\pi:=\piS$ whose generators $u_1, \dots, u_l$ (lying in conjugacy classes fixed initially) can be decomposed as products of two Lagrangian involutions $u_j=\s_j\s_{j+1}$ with $\s_{l+1}=\s_1$. Our main result is that such representations are exactly the elements of the fixed-point set of an anti-symplectic involution defined on the moduli space $\Mod:=\Hom_{\mathcal C}(\pi,U(n))/U(n)$. Consequently, as this fixed-point set is non-empty, it is a Lagrangian submanifold of $\Mod$. To prove this, we use the quasi-Hamiltonian description of the symplectic structure of $\Mod$ and give conditions on an involution defined on a quasi-Hamiltonian $U$-space $(M, \w, \mu\from M \to U)$ for it to induce an anti-symplectic involution on the reduced space $M/\!/U := \mu^{-1}(\{1\})/U$.

Let $M$ be the product of two compact Hamiltonian $T$-spaces $X$ and $Y$. We present a formula for evaluating integrals on the symplectic reduction of $M$ by the diagonal $T$ action. At every regular value of the moment map for $X\times Y$, the integral is the convolution of two distributions associated to the symplectic reductions of $X$ by $T$ and of $Y$ by $T$. Several examples illustrate the computational strength of this relationship. We also prove a linear analogue which can be used to find cohomology pairings on toric orbifolds.

We study certain symplectic quotients of $n$-fold products of complex projective $m$-space by the unitary group acting diagonally. After studying nonemptiness and smoothness of these quotients we construct the action-angle variables, defined on an open dense subset, of an integrable Hamiltonian system. The semiclassical quantization of this system reporduces formulas from the representation theory of the unitary group.

In this article we are concerned with how to compute the cohomology ring of a symplectic quotient by a circle action using the information we have about the cohomology of the original manifold and some data at the fixed point set of the action. Our method is based on the Tolman-Weitsman theorem which gives a characterization of the kernel of the Kirwan map. First we compute a generating set for the kernel of the Kirwan map for the case of product of compact connected manifolds such that the cohomology ring of each of them is generated by a degree two class. We assume the fixed point set is isolated; however the circle action only needs to be ``formally Hamiltonian''. By identifying the kernel, we obtain the cohomology ring of the symplectic quotient. Next we apply this result to some special cases and in particular to the case of products of two dimensional spheres. We show that the results of Kalkman and Hausmann-Knutson are special cases of our result.