Suppose that $C=(C_1,..., C_m)$ is a configuration of 2-dimensional symplectic submanifolds in a symplectic 4-manifold $(X,ω)$ with connected, negative definite intersection graph $Γ_C$. We show that by replacing an appropriate neighborhood of $\cup C_i$ with a smoothing $W_S$ of a normal surface singularity $(S, 0)$ with resolution graph $Γ_C$, the resulting 4-manifold admits a symplectic structure. This operation generalizes the rational blow-down operation of Fintushel-Stern for other configurations, and therefore extends Symington's result about symplectic rational blow-downs.
We introduce a surgery operation on symplectic manifolds called coisotropic Luttinger surgery, which generalizes Luttinger surgery on Lagrangian tori in symplectic 4-manifolds. We use it to produce infinitely many distinct symplectic non-Kahler 6-manifolds $X$ with $c_1(X)=0$ which are not of the form $M\times F$ for $M$ a symplectic 4-manifold and $F$ a closed surface.
We discuss the properties of a certain type of Dehn surgery along a Lagrangian torus in a symplectic 4-manifold, known as Luttinger's surgery, and use this construction to provide a purely topological interpretation of a non-isotopy result for symplectic plane curves with cusp and node singularities due to Moishezon.
We define a twisted version of Manolescu and Woodward's Symplectic Instanton homology, prove that this invariant fits into the framework of Wehrheim and Woodward's Floer Field theory, and describe its behaviour for connected sum and Dehn surgery.
In this note we show that a closed oriented contact manifold is obtained from the standard contact sphere of the same dimension by contact surgeries on isotropic and coisotropic spheres. In addition, we observe that all closed oriented contact manifolds admit symplectic caps.
We prove that for any contact 3-manifold supported by a spinal open book decomposition with planar pages, there is a universal bound on the Euler characteristic and signature of its minimal symplectic fillings. The proof is an application of the spine removal surgery operation recently introduced in joint work of the authors with Van Horn-Morris.
These are notes of a talk given at the Mathematische Arbeitstagung 2005 in Bonn. Following ideas of Ozbagci-Stipsicz, a proof based on contact Dehn surgery is given of Eliashberg's concave filling theorem for contact 3-manifolds. The role of that theorem in the Kronheimer-Mrowka proof of property P for nontrivial knots is sketched.
We study a symplectic surgery operation we call unchaining, which effectively reduces the second Betti number and the symplectic Kodaira dimension at the same time. Using unchaining, we give novel constructions of symplectic Calabi-Yau surfaces from complex surfaces of general type, as well as from rational and ruled surfaces via the natural inverse of this operation. Combining the unchaining surgery with others, which all correspond to certain monodromy substitutions for Lefschetz pencils, we provide further applications, such as a complete resolution of a conjecture of Stipsicz on the existe…
In this article we use the technique of Luttinger surgery to produce small examples of simply connected and non-simply connected minimal symplectic 4-manifolds. In particular, we construct: (1) An example of a minimal symplectic 4-manifold that is homeomorphic but not diffeomorphic to CP^2#3(-CP^2) which contains a symplectic surface of genus 2, trivial normal bundle, and simply connected complement and a disjoint nullhomologous Lagrangian torus with the fundamental group of the complement generated by one of the loops on the torus. (2) A minimal symplectic 4-manifold that is homeomorphic but …
In this note we show that the Lagrangian Luttinger surgery preserves the symplectic Kodaira dimension. Some constraints on Lagrangian tori in symplectic four manifolds with non-positive Kodaira dimension are also derived.
We prove that any symplectic 4-manifold which is not a rational or ruled surface, after sufficiently many blow-ups, admits an arbitrary number of nonisomorphic Lefschetz fibrations of the same genus which cannot be obtained from one another via Luttinger surgeries. This generalizes results of Park and Yun who constructed pairs of nonisomorphic Lefschetz fibrations on knot surgered elliptic surfaces. In turn, we prove that there are monodromy factorizations of Lefschetz pencils which have the same characteristic numbers but cannot be obtained from each other via partial conjugations by Dehn twi…
In [2], the first author constructed the first known examples of exotic minimal symplectic $\CP#5\CPb$ and minimal symplectic 4-manifold that is homeomorphic but not diffeomorphic to $3\CP#7\CPb$. The construction in [2] uses Y. Matsumoto's genus two Lefschetz fibrations on $M = \mathbb{T}^{2}\times \mathbb{S}^{2} #4\CPb$ over $\mathbb{S}^2$ along with the fake symplectic $\mathbb{S}^{2} \times \mathbb{S}^{2}$ construction given in [1]. The main goal in this paper is to generalize the construction in [2] using the higher genus versions of Matsumoto's fibration constructed by Mustafa Korkmaz an…
The paper is a summary of the results of the authors concerning computations of symplectic invariants of Weinstein manifolds and contains some examples and applications. Proofs are sketched. The detailed proofs will appear in our forthcoming paper. In the Appendix written by S. Ganatra and M. Maydanskiy it is shown that the results of this paper imply P. Seidel's conjecture equating symplectic homology with Hochschild homology of a certain Fukaya category.
In this article we apply the technique of Luttinger surgery to study the complexity of the fundamental group of symplectic $4$-manifolds with holomorphic Euler number $χ_h=1$. We discuss the topology of symplectic $4$-manifolds with $b^+=1$ and provide various constructions of symplectic $4$-manifolds with $b^+=1$ and prescribed $c_1^2$.
We compare the star surgery operations introduced in [KS] to the generalized rational blow-down. We show that star surgery shares the properties that make rational blow-down useful for constructions of small exotic symplectic 4-manifolds. Then we show that star surgery operations provide a strictly more general class of operations by proving that there is an infinite family of star surgeries which are inequivalent to any sequence of generalized symplectic rational blow-downs. This answers a question posed to the author by Ozbagci. It also demonstrates that the monodromy substitutions coming fr…
We define a new 4-dimensional symplectic cut and paste operation which is analogous to Fintushel and Stern's rational blow-down. We use this operation to produce multiple constructions of symplectic smoothly exotic complex projective space blown-up eight times, seven times, and six times. We also show how this operation can be used in conjunction with knot surgery to construct an infinite family of minimal exotic smooth structures on the complex projective space blown-up seven times.
In this paper, we construct simply connected symplectic Calabi-Yau 6-manifolds by applying Gompf's symplectic fiber sum operation along $T^4$. Using our construction, we also produce symplectic non-Kähler Calabi-Yau 6-manifolds with fundamental group $\Z$. In this paper, we also produce the first examples of simply connected symplectic Calabi-Yau and non-Calabi-Yau 6-manifolds via coisotropic Luttinger surgery.
We classify the resolution graphs of weighted homogeneous surface singularities which admit rational homology disk smoothings. The nonexistence of rational homology disk smoothings is shown by symplectic geometric methods, while the existence is verified via smoothings of negative weights. In particular, it is shown that a (negative definite) starshaped plumbing tree gives rise to a weighted homogeneous singularity admitting a rational homology disk smoothing if and only if the Milnor fillable contact structure of the link admits a weak symplectic rational homology disk filling.
In this note we present a new definition of the 4-manifold admitting inequivalent symplectic structures constructed by McMullen-Taubes which leads to the identification of a new symplectic structure. We prove moreover that it is diffeomorphic to one of the link surgery manifolds introduced by Fintushel-Stern.
We show that every negative definite configuration of symplectic surfaces in a symplectic 4--manifold has a strongly symplectically convex neighborhood. We use this to show that, if a negative definite configuration satisfies an additional negativity condition at each surface in the configuration, and if the complex singularity with resolution diffeomorphic to a neighborhood of the configuration has a smoothing, then the configuration can be symplectically replaced by the smoothing of the singularity. This generalizes the symplectic rational blowdown procedure used in recent constructions of s…
We prove that every closed, connected contact 3-manifold can be obtained from the 3-sphere with its standard contact structure by contact surgery of coefficient plus or minus 1 along a Legendrian link. As a corollary, we derive a result of Etnyre and Honda about symplectic cobordisms (in slightly stronger form).
This short note presents a simple construction of nonisotopic symplectic tori representing the same primitive homology class in the symplectic 4-manifold E(1)_K, obtained by knot surgery on the rational elliptic surface E(1) with the left-handed trefoil knot K. E(1)_K has the simplest homotopy type among simply-connected symplectic 4-manifolds known to exhibit such property.
This paper completely answers the question of when contact (r)-surgery on a Legendrian knot in the standard contact structure on the 3-sphere yields a symplectically fillable contact manifold for r in (0,1]. We also give obstructions for other positive r and investigate Lagrangian fillings of Legendrian knots.
Twists of contact structures in dimension 3 and higher are studied in this paper from a viewpoint of contact round surgery. Three kinds of new modifications of contact structures which are higher-dimensional generalizations of the $3$-dimensional Lutz twists are introduced. One of the operations makes a contact manifold overtwisted in any dimension. Another one makes it weakly symplectically non-fillable. And the other one makes it strongly symplectically non-fillable. In other words, they make the overtwisted disc, the bordered Legendrian open books, and the Giroux domains, respectively. The …
We prove that the rational blowdown, a surgery on smooth 4-manifolds introduced by Fintushel and Stern, can be performed in the symplectic category. As a consequence, interesting families of smooth 4-manifolds, including the exotic $K3$ surfaces of Gompf and Mrowka, admit symplectic structures.
We introduce the $2$-nodal spherical deformation of certain singular fibers of genus $2$ fibrations, and use such deformations to construct various examples of simply connected minimal symplectic $4$-manifolds with small topology. More specifically, we construct new exotic minimal symplectic $4$-manifolds homeomorphic but not diffeomorphic to ${\mathbb{CP}}^{2}\#6({\overline{\mathbb{CP}}^{2}})$, ${\mathbb{CP}}^{2}\#7({\overline{\mathbb{CP}}^{2}})$, and $3{\mathbb{CP}}^{2}\#k({\overline{\mathbb{CP}}^{2}})$ for $k=16, 17, 18, 19$ using combinations of such deformations, symplectic blowups, and (…
Let E(1)_K denote the closed 4-manifold that is homotopy equivalent (hence homeomorphic) to the rational elliptic surface E(1) and is obtained by performing Fintushel-Stern knot surgery on E(1) using a knot K in S^3. We construct an infinite family of homologous non-isotopic symplectic tori representing a primitive homology class in E(1)_K when K is any nontrivial fibred knot in S^3. We also show how these tori can be non-isotopically embedded as homologous symplectic submanifolds in other symplectic 4-manifolds.
In this article we study Lefschetz fibration structures on knot surgery 4-manifolds obtained from an elliptic surface E(2) using Kanenobu knots $K$. As a result, we get an infinite family of simply connected mutually diffeomorphic 4-manifolds coming from a pair of inequivalent Kanenobu knots. We also obtain an infinite family of simply connected symplectic 4-manifolds, each of which admits more than one inequivalent Lefschetz fibration structures of the same generic fiber.
Modulo trivial exceptions, we show that smoothly nontrivial symplectic sums of symplectic 4-manifolds along surfaces of positive genus are never rational or ruled, and we enumerate each case in which they have Kodaira dimension zero (i.e., are blowups of symplectic 4-manifolds with torsion canonical class). In particular, a symplectic four-manifold of Kodaira dimension zero arises by such a surgery only if it is diffeomorphic to a blowup either of the K3 surface, the Enriques surface, or a member of a particular family of T^2-bundles over T^2 each having b_1=2.
In this note we prove that, for any integer n, there exist a smooth 4-manifold, homotopic to a K3 surface, defined by applying the link surgery method of Fintushel-Stern to a certain 2-component graph link, which admits n inequivalent symplectic structures Keywords: Symplectic topology of 4-manifolds; Seiberg-Witten theory
Due to a significant error in the main result (pointed out by J. Wahl), the paper has been withdrawn by the authors. A corrected and expanded version is 'Rational blow-downs and smoothings of surface singularities' by A. Stipsicz, Z. Szabo and J. Wahl.
An important class of contact 3--manifolds are those that arise as links of rational surface singularities with reduced fundamental cycle. We explicitly describe symplectic caps (concave fillings) of such contact 3--manifolds. As an application, we present a new obstruction for such singularities to admit rational homology disk smoothings.
In this paper, we investigate a relation between rational blowdown surgery and minimal symplectic fillings of a given Seifert 3-manifold with a canonical contact structure. Consequently, we determine a necessary and sufficient condition for a minimal symplectic filling of a Seifert 3-manifold satisfying certain conditions to be obtained by a sequence of rational blowdowns from the minimal resolution of the corresponding weighted homogeneous surface singularity. Furthermore, as an application of the main results, we prove that every minimal symplectic filling of a large family of Seifert 3-mani…
The Milnor fibre of a $\mathbb{Q}$-Gorenstein smoothing of a Wahl singularity is a rational homology ball $B_{p,q}$. For a canonically polarised surface of general type $X$, it is known that there are bounds on the number $p$ for which $B_{p,q}$ admits a symplectic embedding into $X$. In this paper, we give a recipe to construct unbounded sequences of symplectically embedded $B_{p,q}$ into surfaces of general type equipped with non-canonical symplectic forms. Ultimately, these symplectic embeddings come from Mori's theory of flips, but we give an interpretation in terms of almost toric structu…
Surgery triangles are an important computational tool in Floer homology. Given a connected oriented surface $Σ$, we consider the abelian group $K(Σ)$ generated by bordered 3-manifolds with boundary $Σ$, modulo the relation that the three manifolds involved in any surgery triangle sum to zero. We show that $K(Σ)$ is a finitely generated free abelian group and compute its rank. We also construct an explicit basis and show that it generates all bordered 3-manifolds in a certain stronger sense. Our basis is strictly contained in another finite generating set which was constructed previously by Bal…
In arXiv:1611.09927, we constructed a well-defined Lagrangian Floer invariant for any closed, oriented $3$-manifold $Y$ via the symplectic geometry of so-called traceless $\mathrm{SU}(2)$-character varieties. This invariant, $\mathrm{SI}(Y)$, which we refer to as the symplectic instanton homology of $Y$, was also shown to satisfy an exact triangle for Dehn surgeries on knots which is typical of Floer-theoretic invariants of $3$-manifolds. In this article, we demonstrate further structural properties of this symplectic instanton homology. For example, Floer theories are expected to roughly sati…
We define an simple invariant of an embedded nullhomologous Lagrangian torus and use this invariant to show that many symplectic 4-manifolds have infinitely many pairwise symplectically inequivalent nullhomologous Lagrangian tori. We further show that for a large class of examples that lambda(T) is actually a C-infinity invariant. In addition, this invariant is used to show that many symplectic 4-manifolds have nontrivial homology classes which are represented by infinitely many pairwise inequivalent Lagrangian tori, a result first proved by S Vidussi for the homotopy K3-surface obtained from …
We show that any 4-manifold, after surgery on a curve, admits an achiral Lefschetz fibration. In particular, we show that the connected sum of any simply connected 4-manifold with a 2-sphere bundle over the 2-sphere will admit an achiral Lefschetz fibration. We also show these surgered manifolds admit near-symplectic structures and prove more generally that achiral Lefschetz fibrations with sections have near-symplectic structures. As a corollary to our proof we obtain an alternate proof of Gompf's result on the existence of symplectic structures on Lefschetz pencils.
We apply Menke's JSJ decomposition for symplectic fillings to several families of contact 3-manifolds. Among other results, we complete the classification up to orientation-preserving diffeomorphism of strong symplectic fillings of lens spaces. We show that exact symplectic fillings of contact manifolds obtained by surgery on certain Legendrian negative cables are the result of attaching a Weinstein 2-handle to an exact filling of a lens space. For large families of contact structures on Seifert fibered spaces over $S^2$, we reduce the problem of classifying exact symplectic structures to the …
Since its inception, Floer homology has been an important tool in low-dimensional topology. Floer theoretic invariants of $3$-manifolds tend to be either gauge theoretic or symplecto-geometric in nature, and there is a general philosophy that each gauge theoretic Floer homology should have a corresponding symplectic Floer homology and vice-versa. In this article, we construct a Lagrangian Floer invariant for any closed, oriented $3$-manifold $Y$ (called the symplectic instanton homology of $Y$ and denoted $\mathrm{SI}(Y)$) which is conjecturally equivalent to a Floer homology defined using a c…
Alfréd Rényi Institute of Mathematics（阿尔弗雷德·雷尼数学研究所）；Budapest University of Technology and Economics（布达佩斯技术与经济大学）；Stony Brook University（石溪大学）；University of California, Davis（加州大学戴维斯分校）
We give two constructions of surfaces in simply-connected 4-manifolds with non simply-connected complements. One is an iteration of the twisted rim surgery introduced by the first author. We also construct, for any group G satisfying some simple conditions, a simply-connected symplectic manifold containing a symplectic surface whose complement has fundamental group G. In each case, we produce infinitely many smoothly inequivalent surfaces that are equivalent up to smooth s-cobordism and hence are topologically equivalent for good groups.
We consider the canonical contact structures on links of rational surface singularities with reduced fundamental cycle. These singularities can be characterized by their dual resolution graphs: the graph is a tree, and the weight of each vertex is no greater than its negative valency. In a joint work with Starkston, we previously showed that if the weight of each vertex in the graph is at most -5, the contact structure has a unique symplectic filling (up to symplectic deformation and blow-up). The proof was based on a symplectic analog of de Jong-van Straten's description of smoothings of thes…
Let N be a closed, oriented 3-manifold. A folklore conjecture states that S^1 x N admits a symplectic structure only if N admits a fibration over the circle. The purpose of this paper is to provide evidence to this conjecture studying suitable twisted Alexander polynomials of N, and showing that their behavior is the same as of those of fibered 3-manifolds. In particular, we will obtain new obstructions to the existence of symplectic structures and to the existence of symplectic forms representing certain cohomology classes of S^1 x N. As an application of these results we will show that S^1 x…
Let K be a non-trivial knot in the 3-sphere and let Y be the 3-manifold obtained by surgery on K with surgery-coefficient 1. Using tools from gauge theory and symplectic topology, it is shown that the fundamental group of Y admits a non-trivial homomorphism to the group SO(3). In particular, Y cannot be a homotopy-sphere.
This article presents the constructions of new infinite families of smooth 4-manifolds with the property that any two manifolds in the same family are homeomorphic and, from their construction, seem to be quite different, but cannot be distinguished by Seiberg-Witten invariants. Whether these manifolds are, or are not, actually diffeomorphic seems to be a very difficult question to answer. The most interesting of these constructions is a surgery that from certain symplectic 4-manifolds will produce nonsymplectic 4-manifolds. This is detected by calculations of Seiberg-Witten invariants. The su…
As the sequel to [3], we construct a minimal complex surface of general type with p_g=0, K^2=2 and H_1=Z/2Z using a rational blow-down surgery and Q-Gorenstein smoothing theory. We also present an example of p_g = 0,K^2 = 2 and H_1 = Z/3Z.
We construct a minimal complex surface of general type with $p_g=0$, $K^2 =4$, and $π_1=\mathbb{Z}/2\mathbb{Z}$ using a rational blow-down surgery and a $\mathbb{Q}$-Gorenstein smoothing theory. In a similar fashion, we also construct a symplectic 4-manifold with $b_2^+=1$, $K^2=5$, and $π_1=\mathbb{Z}/2\mathbb{Z}$.
