Symplectically Flat Connections and Their Functionals

We continue our study of symplectically flat bundles. We broaden the notion of symplectically flat connections on symplectic manifolds to $\zeta$-flat connections on smooth manifolds. These connections on principal bundles can be represented by maps from an extension of the base’s fundamental group to the structure group. We introduce functionals with zeroes being symplectically flat connections and study their critical points. Such functionals lead to novel geometric flows. We also describe some characteristic classes of the $\zeta$-flat bundles.