The restricted Grassmannian, Banach Lie–Poisson spaces, and coadjoint orbits

We investigate some basic questions concerning the relationship between the restricted Grassmannian and the theory of Banach Lie–Poisson spaces. By using universal central extensions of Lie algebras, we find that the restricted Grassmannian is symplectomorphic to symplectic leaves in certain Banach Lie– Poisson spaces, and the underlying Banach space can be chosen to be even a Hilbert space. Smoothness of numerous adjoint and coadjoint orbits of the restricted unitary group is also established. Several pathological properties of the restricted algebra are pointed out. © 2007 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved