We investigate the complex geometry of total spaces of reductive principal bundles over compact base spaces and establish a close relation between the Kähler property of the base, momentum maps for the action of a maximal compact subgroup on the total space, and the Kähler property of special equivariant compactifications. We provide many examples illustrating that the main result is optimal.

We introduce the process of symplectic reduction along a submanifold as a uniform approach to taking quotients in symplectic geometry. This construction holds in the categories of smooth manifolds, complex analytic spaces, and complex algebraic varieties, and has an interpretation in terms of derived stacks in shifted symplectic geometry. It also encompasses Marsden–Weinstein–Meyer reduction, Mikami–Weinstein reduction, the pre-images of Poisson transversals under moment maps, symplectic cutting, symplectic implosion, and the Ginzburg–Kazhdan construction of Moore–Tachikawa varieties in topological quantum field theory. A key feature of our construction is a concrete and systematic association of a Hamiltonian $G$-space $\mathfrak {M}_{G, S}$ to each pair $(G,S)$, where $G$ is any Lie group and $S\subseteq \mathrm {Lie}(G)^{*}$ is any submanifold satisfying certain non-degeneracy conditions. The spaces $\mathfrak {M}_{G, S}$ satisfy a universal property for symplectic reduction which generalizes that of the universal imploded cross-section. Although these Hamiltonian $G$-spaces are explicit and natural from a Lie-theoretic perspective, some of them appear to be new.

Let $Q$ be a closed manifold admitting a locally free action of a compact Lie group $G$. In this paper, we study the properties of geodesic flows on $Q$ given by suitable G-invariant Riemannian metrics. In particular, we will be interested in the existence of geodesics that are closed up to the action of some element in the group $G$, since they project to closed magnetic geodesics on the quotient orbifold $Q/G$.

If $(G,V)$ is a polar representation with Cartan subspace $\mathfrak{c}$ and Weyl group $W$, it is shown that there is a natural morphism of Poisson schemes $\mathfrak{c}\oplus \mathfrak{c}^{\ast }/W\rightarrow V\oplus V^{\ast }/\!\!/\!\!/G$. This morphism is conjectured to be an isomorphism of the underlying reduced varieties if$(G,V)$ is visible. The conjecture is proved for visible stable locally free polar representations and some other examples.

We decompose the Marsden–Weinstein reductions for the moment map associated to representations of a quiver. The decomposition involves symmetric products of deformations of Kleinian singularities, as well as other terms. As a corollary we deduce that the Marsden–Weinstein reductions are irreducible varieties.