Bi-invariant metrics and quasi-morphisms on groups of Hamiltonian diffeomorphisms of surfaces

Michael Brandenbursky

Published 2013-06-14, updated 2014-05-30Version 3

Let \Sigma_g be a closed orientable surface let Diff_0(\Sigma_g; area) be the identity component of the group of area-preserving diffeomorphisms of \Sigma_g. In this work we present an extension of Gambaudo-Ghys construction to the case of a closed hyperbolic surface \Sigma_g, i.e. we show that every non-trivial homogeneous quasi-morphism on the braid group on n strings of \Sigma_g defines a non-trivial homogeneous quasi-morphism on the group Diff_0(\Sigma_g; area). As a consequence we give another proof of the fact that the space of homogeneous quasi-morphisms on Diff_0(\Sigma_g; area) is infinite dimensional. Let Ham(\Sigma_g) be the group of Hamiltonian diffeomorphisms of \Sigma_g. As an application of the above construction we construct two injective homomorphisms from Z^m to Ham(\Sigma_g), which are bi-Lipschitz with respect to the word metric on Z^m and the autonomous and fragmentation metrics on Ham(\Sigma_g). In addition, we construct a new infinite family of Calabi quasi-morphisms on Ham(\Sigma_g).