We initiate the study of the norm-squared of the momentum map as a rigorous tool in infinite dimensions. In particular, we calculate the Hessian at a critical point, show that it is positive semi-definite along the complexified orbit, and determine a decomposition of the stabilizer under the complexified action. We apply these results to the action of the group of symplectomorphisms on the spaces of compatible almost complex structures and of symplectic connections. In the former case, we extend results of Calabi to not necessarily integrable almost complex structures that are extremal in a relative sense. In both cases, the momentum map is not equivariant, which gives rise to new phenomena and opens up new avenues for interesting applications. For example, using the prequantization construction, we obtain new central extensions of the group of symplectomorphisms that are encoding geometric information of the underlying finite-dimensional manifold.
