Hamiltonian Lie algebroids

In previous work with M.C. Fernandes, we found a Lie algebroid symmetry for the Einstein evolution equations of general relativity. The present work was motivated by the effort to explain the coisotropic structure of the constraint subset for the initial value problem by extending the notion of hamiltonian structure from Lie algebra actions to general Lie algebroids over presymplectic manifolds. After comparing possible compatibility conditions between the anchor $A\to TM$ and the presymplectic structure on the base $M$, we choose the most natural of them, given by a suitably chosen connection on $A$. We define a notion of momentum section of $A^*$ and a condition for compatibility with the Lie bracket. A Lie algebroid over a presymplectic manifold with compatible anchor and momentum section is then called hamiltonian. For an action Lie algebroid, we retrieve the conditions of a hamiltonian action. The clean zero locus of the momentum section of a hamiltonian Lie algebroid is a coisotropic submanifold. We show that a bracket-compatible momentum map is equivalent to a closed basic extension of the presymplectic form, within the generalization of the BRST model of equivariant cohomology to Lie algebroids. We construct groupoids by reduction of an action Lie groupoid $G\times M$ by a subgroup $H$ of $G$ which is not necessarily normal, and we find conditions which imply that a hamiltonian structure descends to their Lie algebroids. We consider many examples and, in particular, find that the tangent Lie algebroid over a symplectic manifold is hamiltonian with respect to some connection if and only if the symplectic structure has a nowhere vanishing primitive. Recent results of Stratmann and Tang show that this is the case whenever the symplectic structure is exact.