Propagation in Hamiltonian dynamics and relative symplectic homology

The main result asserts the existence of noncontractible periodic orbits for compactly supported time-dependent Hamiltonian systems on the unit cotangent bundle of the torus or of a negatively curved manifold whenever the generating Hamiltonian is sufficiently large over the zero section. The proof is based on Floer homology and on the notion of a relative symplectic capacity. Applications include results about propagation properties of sequential Hamiltonian systems, periodic orbits on hypersurfaces, Hamiltonian circle actions, and smooth Lagrangian skeletons in Stein manifolds.