This is an expanded version of the talk given be the first author at the conference "Topology, Geometry, and Dynamics: Rokhlin - 100". The purpose of this talk was to explain our current results on classification of rational symplectic 4-manifolds equipped with an anti-symplectic involution. Detailed exposition will appear elsewhere.
The main purpose of the present paper is a study of orientations of the moduli spaces of pseudo-holomorphic discs with boundary lying on a \emph{real} Lagrangian submanifold, i.e., the fixed point set of an anti-symplectic involutions $τ$ on a symplectic manifold. We introduce the notion of $τ$-relatively spin structure for an anti-symplectic involution $τ$, and study how the orientations on the moduli space behave under the involution $τ$. We also apply this to the study of Lagrangian Floer theory of real Lagrangian submanifolds. In particular, we study unobstructedness of the $τ$-fixed point…
We show that the space of anti-symplectic involutions of a monotone $S^2\times S^2$ whose fixed points set is a Lagrangian sphere is connected. This follows from a stronger result, namely that any two anti-symplectic involutions in that space are Hamiltonian isotopic.
In this note we prove that the space of linear anti-symplectic involutions is the homogenous space $Gl(n,\R)\Sp(n)$. This result is motivated by the study of symmetric periodic orbits in the restricted 3-body problem.
We present a canonical form for a symplectic involution $S\in Sp(2g,\mathbb{Z})$, $S^2=1$; the construction is algorithmic. Application is made in the Riemann surface setting.
Let G be a complex semisimple Lie group and τa complex antilinear involution that commutes with the Cartan involution. If H denotes the connected subgroup of τ-fixed points in G, and K is maximally compact, each H-orbit in G/K can be equipped with a Poisson structure as described by Evens and Lu. We consider symplectic leaves of certain such H-orbits with a natural hamiltonian torus action. A symplectic convexity theorem of Hilgert-Neeb-Plank then leads to van den Ban's convexity theorem for (complex) semisimple symmetric spaces.
Let $(S^2,ω)$ be a symplectic sphere, and let $τ\colon S^2 \to S^2$ be an anti-symplectic involution of $(S^2,ω)$. We consider the product $(S^2,ω) \times (S^2,ω)$ endowed with the anti-symplectic involution $τ\times τ$, and study the space of monotone anti-invariant symplectic forms on this four-manifold. We show that this space is disconnected. In addition, during the course of the proof, we produce a diffeomorphism of the grassmannian (2,4) which induces the identity map on all homology and homotopy groups, but which is not homotopic to the identity.
There are two types of $J$-holomorphic spheres in a symplectic manifold invariant under an anti-symplectic involution: those that have a fixed point locus and those that do not. The former are described by moduli spaces of $J$-holomorphic disks, which are well studied in the literature. In this paper, we first study moduli spaces describing the latter and then combine the two types of moduli spaces to get a well-defined theory of counting real curves of genus 0. We use equivariant localization to show that these invariants (unlike the disk invariants) are essentially the same for the two (stan…
We consider Lagrangian Floer cohomology for a pair of Lagrangian submanifolds in a symplectic manifold M. Suppose that M carries a symplectic involution, which preserves both submanifolds. Under various topological hypotheses, we prove a localization theorem for Floer cohomology, which implies a Smith-type inequality for the Floer cohomology groups in M and its fixed point set. Two applications to symplectic Khovanov cohomology are included.
For a symplectic manifold with an anti-symplectic involution having non-empty fixed locus, we construct a model of the moduli space of real sphere maps out of moduli spaces of decorated disk maps and give an explicit expression for its first Stiefel-Whitney class. As a corollary, we obtain a large number of examples, which include all odd-dimensional projective spaces and many complete intersections, for which many types of real moduli spaces are orientable. For these manifolds, we define open Gromov-Witten invariants with no restriction on the dimension of the manifolds or the type of the con…
The well-known fact that any genus $g$ symplectic Lefschetz fibration $ X^{4}\to S^{2}$ is given by a word that is equal to the identity element in the mapping class group and each of whose elements is given by a positive Dehn twist, provides an intimate relationship between words in the mapping class group and 4-manifolds that are realized as symplectic Lefschetz fibrations. In this article we provide new words in the mapping class group, hence new symplectic Lefschetz fibrations. We also compute the signatures of those symplectic Lefschetz fibrations.
Given a symplectic manifold (M, ω) and a Lagrangian submanifold L, we construct versions of the symplectic blow-up and blow-down which are defined relative to L. Furthermore, we show that if M admits an anti-symplectic involution ϕ and we blow-up an appropriately symmetric embedding of symplectic balls, then there exists an anti-symplectic involution on the blow-up as well. We derive a homological condition which determines when the topology of a real Lagrangian surface L = Fix(ϕ) changes after a blow down, and we use these constructions to study the real packing numbers and packing stability …
Let $M$ be a compact, connected symplectic manifold with a Hamiltonian action of a compact $n$-dimensional torus $G=T^n$. Suppose that $σ$ is an anti-symplectic involution compatible with the $G$-action. The real locus of $M$ is $X$, the fixed point set of $σ$. Duistermaat uses Morse theory to give a description of the ordinary cohomology of $X$ in terms of the cohomology of $M$. There is a residual $\G=(\Zt)^n$ action on $X$, and we can use Duistermaat's result, as well as some general facts about equivariant cohomology, to prove an equivariant analogue to Duistermaat's theorem. In some cases…
Let $M$ be a compact symplectic manifold on which a compact torus $T$ acts Hamiltonialy with a moment map $μ$. Suppose there exists a symplectic involution $θ:M\to M$, such that $μ\circθ=-μ$. Assuming that 0 is a regular value of $μ$, we calculate the trace of the action of $θ$ on the cohomology of $M$ in terms of the trace of the action of $θ$ on the symplectic reduction $μ^{-1}(0)/T$ of $M$. This result generalizes a theorem of R. Stanley, who considered the case when $M$ was a toric variety.
We study the Floer cohomology of the Dehn twist along a real Lagrangian sphere in a symplectic manifold endowed with an anti-symplectic involution. We prove that there exists a distinguished element in the Floer group that is a fixed point of the automorphism induced by the involution. Our methods of proof are based on Mak-Wu's cobordism and Floer-theoretic considerations.
Dirac submanifolds are a natural generalization in the Poisson category for symplectic submanifolds of a symplectic manifold. In a certain sense they correspond to symplectic subgroupoids of the symplectic groupoid of the given Poisson manifold. In particular, Dirac submanifolds arise as the stable locus of a Poisson involution. In this paper, we provide a general study for these submanifolds including both local and global aspects. In the second part of the paper, we study Poisson involutions and the induced Poisson structures on their stable locuses. We discuss the Poisson involutions on a s…
The rational homology balls $B_n$ appeared in Fintushel and Stern's rational blow-down construction [FS2]. Later, Symington [Sy1], defined this operation in the symplectic category. In [Kh2], the author defined the inverse procedure, the symplectic rational blow-up. In this paper, we study the obstructions to symplectically rationally blowing up a symplectic 4-manifold, i.e. the obstructions to symplectically embedding the rational homology balls $B_n$ into a symplectic 4-manifold. We prove a theorem and give additional examples which suggest that in order to symplectically embed the rational …
Let $(M,ω)$ be a ruled symplectic four-manifold. If $(M, ω)$ is rational, then every homologically trivial symplectic cyclic action on $(M,ω)$ is the restriction of a Hamiltonian circle action.
Two commuting symplectomorphisms of a symplectic manifold give rise to actions on Floer cohomologies of each other. We prove the elliptic relation saying that the supertraces of these two actions are equal. In the case when a symplectomorphism $f$ commutes with a symplectic involution, the elliptic relation provides a lower bound on the dimension of $HF^*(f)$ in terms of the Lefschetz number of $f$ restricted to the fixed locus of the involution. We apply this bound to prove that Dehn twists around vanishing Lagrangian spheres inside most hypersurfaces in Grassmannians have infinite order in t…
In a compact, symplectic real manifold, i.e supporting an antisymplectic involution, we use Donaldson's construction to build a codimension 2 symplectic submanifold invariant under the action of the involution. If the real part of the manifold is not empty, and if the symplectic form $\om$ is entire, then for all $k$ big enough, we can find a hypersurface Poincaré dual of $k[ω]$ such that its real part has at least $k^{\dim X/4}$ connected components, up to a constant independant of $k$. Finally we extend to our real case Donaldson's construction of Lefschetz pencils.
We define a signed count of real rational pseudo-holomorphic curves appearing in a one-parameter family of real Spin symplectic K3 surfaces. We show that this count is an invariant of the deformation class of the family. In the case of a real projective K3 surface, this invariant specializes to count real rational curves appearing in a linear system on the surface.
We revisit the definition of the Maslov index of loops in coisotropic submanifolds tangent to the characteristic foliation of this submanifold. This Maslov index is given by the mean index of a certain symplectic path which is a lift of the holonomy along the loop. We prove a result on the rigidity of the Maslov index for stable coisotropic submanifolds in a broad class of ambient symplectic manifolds. Furthermore, we establish a nearby existence theorem for the same class of ambient manifolds.
We construct fiber-preserving anti-symplectic involutions for a large class of symplectic manifolds with Lagrangian torus fibrations. In particular, we treat the K3 surface and the quintic threefold. We interpret our results as corroboration of the view that in homological mirror symmetry, an anti-symplectic involution is the mirror of duality. In the same setting, we construct fiber-preserving symplectomorphisms that can be interpreted as the mirror to twisting by a holomorphic line bundle.
In this paper we study whether symplectic toric manifolds are symplectically cohomologically rigid. Here we say that symplectic cohomological rigidity holds for some family of symplectic manifolds if the members of that family can be distinguished by their integral cohomology rings and the cohomology classes of their symplectic forms. We show how toric degenerations can be used to produce the symplectomorphisms necessary to answer this question. As a consequence we prove that symplectic cohomological rigidity holds for the family of symplectic Bott manifolds with rational symplectic form whose…
We prove that the count of Maslov index 2 $J$-holomorphic discs passing through a generic point of a real Lagrangian submanifold in a closed spherically monotone symplectic manifold must be even. As a corollary, we exhibit a genuine real symplectic phenomenon in terms of involutions, namely that the Chekanov torus $\mathbb{T}_{\text{Chek}}$ in $S^2\times S^2$, which is a monotone Lagrangian torus not Hamiltonian isotopic to the Clifford torus $\mathbb{T}_{\text{Clif}}$, can be seen as the fixed point set of a smooth involution, but not of an antisymplectic involution.
A symplectic manifold is called symplectic rationally connected if there is a non-zero genus zero Gromov-Witten invariant with two point insertions. It is conjectured that every smooth projective rationally connected variety is symplectic rationally connected. In this short note we give some examples of rationally connected 4-folds which are symplectic rationally connected. In particular, all Fano 4-folds of pseudo-index at least 2 are symplectic rationally connected. The proof does not use any explicit description of these varieties.
We study symplectic geometry of rationally connected $3$-folds. The first result shows that rationally connectedness is a symplectic deformation invariant in dimension $3$. If a rationally connected $3$-fold $X$ is Fano or $b_2(X)=2$, we prove that it is symplectic rationally connected, i.e. there is a non-zero Gromov-Witten invariant with two insertions being the class of a point. Finally we prove that many rationally connected $3$-folds are birational to a symplectic rationally connected variety.
We give characterizations of a finite group $G$ acting symplectically on a rational surface ($\mathbb{C}P^2$ blown up at two or more points). In particular, we obtain a symplectic version of the dichotomy of $G$-conic bundles versus $G$-del Pezzo surfaces for the corresponding $G$-rational surfaces, analogous to a classical result in algebraic geometry. Besides the characterizations of the group $G$ (which is completely determined for the case of $\mathbb{C}P^2\# N\overline{\mathbb{C}P^2}$, $N=2,3,4$), we also investigate the equivariant symplectic minimality and equivariant symplectic cone of…
Fintushel and Stern defined the rational blow-down construction [FS] for smooth 4-manifolds, where a linear plumbing configuration of spheres $C_n$ is replaced with a rational homology ball $B_n$, $n \geq 2$. Subsequently, Symington [Sy] defined this procedure in the symplectic category, where a symplectic $C_n$ (given by symplectic spheres) is replaced by a symplectic copy of $B_n$ to yield a new symplectic manifold. As a result, a symplectic rational blow-down can be performed on a manifold whenever such a configuration of symplectic spheres can be found. In this paper, we define the inverse…
We verify that the rational blow-down schemes along certain Seifert fibered 3-manifolds found by the second author, Szabo and Wahl are, in fact, symplectic operations.
A symplectic rational cuspidal curve with positive self-intersection number admits a concave neighborhood, and thus a corresponding contact manifold on the boundary. In this article, we study symplectic fillings of such contact manifolds, providing a complementary perspective to our earlier article on symplectic isotopy classes of rational cuspidal curves. We explore aspects of these symplectic fillings through Stein handlebodies and rational blow-downs. We give examples of such contact manifolds which are identifiable as links of normal surface singularities, other examples which admit no sym…
Let E(1)_p denote the rational elliptic surface with a single multiple fiber f_p of multiplicity p. We construct an infinite family of homologous non-isotopic symplectic tori representing the primitive class [f_p] in E(1)_p when p>1. As a consequence, we get infinitely many non-isotopic symplectic tori in the fiber class of the rational elliptic surface E(1) (complex projective plane blown-up at nine branch points of a generic pencil of cubic curves). We also show how these tori can be non-isotopically and symplectically embedded in many other symplectic 4-manifolds.
We construct a combinatorial invariant of Legendrian knots in standard contact three-space. This invariant, which encodes rational relative Symplectic Field Theory and extends contact homology, counts holomorphic disks with an arbitrary number of positive punctures. The construction uses ideas from string topology.
Consider a Maslov zero Lagrangian submanifold diffeomorphic to a Lie group on which an anti-symplectic involution acts by the inverse map of the group. We show that the Fukaya $A_\infty$ endomorphism algebra of such a Lagrangian is quasi-isomorphic to its de Rham cohomology tensored with the Novikov field. In particular, it is unobstructed, formal, and its Floer and de Rham cohomologies coincide. Our result implies that the smooth fibers of a large class of singular Lagrangian fibrations are unobstructed and their Floer and de Rham cohomologies coincide. This is a step in the SYZ and family Fl…
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.
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.
We present constructions of simply connected symplectic 4-manifolds which have (up to sign) one basic class and which fill up the geographical region between the half-Noether and Noether lines.
We classify rational cuspidal curves of degrees 6 and 7 in the complex projective plane, up to symplectic isotopy. The proof uses topological tools, pseudoholomorphic techniques, and birational transformations.
Let $(X,ω)$ be a symplectic rational 4 manifold. We study the space of tamed almost complex structures $\mathcal{J}_ω$ using a fine decomposition via smooth rational curves and a relative version of the infinite-dimensional Alexander duality. This decomposition provides new understandings of both the variation and stability of the symplectomorphism group $Symp(X,ω)$ when deforming $ω$. In particular, we compute the rank of $π_1(Symp(X,ω))$ with Euler number $χ(X)\leq 7$ in terms of the number $N$ of -2 symplectic sphere classes.
We study the symplectic topology of some finite algebraic quotients of the An Milnor fibre which are diffeomorphic to the rational homology balls that appear in Fintushel and Stern's rational blowdown construction. We prove that these affine surfaces have no closed exact Lagrangian submanifolds by using the already available and deep understanding of the Fukaya category of the An Milnor fibre coming from homological mirror symmetry. On the other hand, we find Floer theoretically essential monotone Lagrangian tori, finitely covered by the monotone tori which we study in the An Milnor fibre. We …
We call a symplectic rational surface $(X,ω)$ \textit{positive} if $c_1(X)\cdot[ω]>0$. The positivity condition of a rational surface is equivalent to the existence of a divisor $D\subset X$, such that $(X, D)$ is a log Calabi-Yau surface. The cohomology class of a symplectic form can be endowed with a \textit{type} using the root system associated to its Lagrangian spherical classes. In this paper, we prove that the symplectic Torelli group of a positive rational surface is trivial if it is of type $\mathbb{A}$, and is a sphere braid group if it is of type $\mathbb{D}$. As an application, we …
We define a suitably tame class of singular symplectic curves in 4-manifolds, namely those whose singularities are modeled on complex curve singularities. We study the corresponding symplectic isotopy problem, with a focus on rational curves with irreducible singularities (rational cuspidal curves) in the complex projective plane. We prove that every such curve is isotopic to a complex curve in degrees up to 5, and for curves with one singularity whose link is a torus knot. Classification results of symplectic isotopy classes rely on pseudo-holomorphic curves together with a symplectic version…
We introduce the secondary Stiefel-Whitney class $\tilde w_2$ of homotopically trivial diffeomorphisms and show that a homotopically trivial symplectomorphism of a ruled 4-manifold is isotopic to identity if and only if the class $\tilde w_2$ vanishes. Using this, we give a detailed description of the combinatorial structure of the diffeotopy group of ruled symplectic 4-manifolds $X$, either minimal or blown-up, and its action on the homology and homotopy groups $H_2(X,\zz)$, $π_1(X)$, and $π_2(X)$.
In this article we construct a new family of simply connected symplectic 4-manifolds with $b_2^+ =1$ and $c_1^2 =2$ which are not diffeomorphic to rational surfaces by using rational blow-down technique. As a corollary, we conclude that a rational surface ${\mathbf CP}^2 \sharp 7{\bar{\mathbf CP}^2}$ admits an exotic smooth structure.
We study in this paper the rational homotopy type of the space of symplectic embeddings of the standard ball $B^4(c) \subset \R^4$ into 4-dimensional rational symplectic manifolds. We compute the rational homotopy groups of that space when the 4-manifold has the form $M_λ= (S^2 \times S^2, μω_0 \oplus ω_0)$ where $ω_0$ is the area form on the sphere with total area 1 and $μ$ belongs to the interval $[1,2]$. We show that, when $μ$ is 1, this space retracts to the space of symplectic frames, for any value of $c$. However, for any given $1 < μ< 2$, the rational homotopy type of that space changes…
The planar circular restricted three body problem (PCRTBP) is symmetric with respect to the line of masses and there is a corresponding anti-symplectic involution on the cotangent bundle of the 2-sphere in the regularized PCRTBP. Recently it was shown that each bounded component of an energy hypersurface with low energy for the regularized PCRTBP is fiberwise starshaped. This enable us to define a Lagrangian Rabinowitz Floer homology which is related to periodic orbits symmetric for the anti-symplectic involution in the regularized PCRTBP and hence to symmetric periodic orbits in the unregular…
In this article we consider a generalization of manifolds and orbifolds which we call quasifolds; quasifolds of dimension k are locally isomorphic to the quotient of R^k by the action of a discrete group - tipically they are not Hausdorff topological spaces. The analogue of a torus in this geometry is a quasitorus. We define Hamiltonian actions of quasitori on symplectic quasifolds and we show that any simple convex polytope, rational or not, is the image of the moment mapping for a family of effective Hamiltonian actions on symplectic quasifolds having twice the dimension of the corresponding…
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…
In this paper we study the topology of the space $\I_ω$ of complex structures compatible with a fixed symplectic form $ω$, using the framework of Donaldson. By comparing our analysis of the space $\I_ω$ with results of McDuff on the space $\cat J_ω$ of compatible almost complex structures on rational ruled surfaces, we find that $\I_ω$ is contractible in this case. We then apply this result to study the topology of the symplectomorphism group of a rational ruled surface, extending results of Abreu and McDuff.
On a compact oriented four-manifold with an orientation preserving involution c, we count solutions of Seiberg-Witten equations, which are moreover symmetrical in relation to c, to construct "real" Seiberg-Witten invariants. Using Taubes' results, we prove that on a symplectic almost complex manifold with an antisymplectic and antiholomorphic involution, this invariants are not all trivial, and that the canonical bundle is represented by a real holomorphic curve.