The main theorem of this paper is a result of estimated transversality with respect to stratifications of jet spaces in the approximately holomorphic category over an almost-complex manifold. The notion of asymptotic ampleness of complex vector bundles over an almost-complex manifold is also discussed, as well as applications to the construction of maps with generic singularities from compact symplectic manifolds to projective spaces.
We use Donaldson hypersurfaces to construct pseudo-cycles which define Gromov-Witten invariants for any symplectic manifold which agree with the invariants in the cases where transversality could be achieved by perturbing the almost complex structure.
In this paper, we address a question of Donaldson's on the best estimate that can be achieved for the transversality of an asymptotically holomorphic sequence of sections of increasing powers of a line bundle over an integral symplectic manifold. More specifically, we find an upper bound for the transversality of n such sequences of sections over a 2n-dimensional symplectic manifold. In the simplest case of S^2, we also relate the problem to a well known question in potential theory (namely, that of finding logarithmic equilibrium points), thus establishing an experimental lower bound for the …
This survey wants to give a short introduction to the transversality problem in symplectic field theory and motivate to approach it using the new Fredholm theory by Hofer, Wysocki and Zehnder. With this it should serve as a lead-in for the user's guide to polyfolds, which will appear soon and is the result of a working group organized by J. Fish, R. Golovko and the author at MSRI Berkeley in fall 2009.
We study the parametrized Hamiltonian action functional for finite-dimensional families of Hamiltonians. We show that the linearized operator for the $L^2$-gradient lines is Fredholm and surjective, for a generic choice of Hamiltonian and almost complex structure. We also establish the Fredholm property and transversality for generic $S^1$-invariant families of Hamiltonians and almost complex structures, parametrized by odd-dimensional spheres. This is a foundational result used to define $S^1$-equivariant Floer homology. As an intermediate result of independent interest, we generalize Aronsza…
This paper gives methods for understanding invariants of symplectic quotients. The symplectic quotients considered here are compact symplectic manifolds (or more generally orbifolds), which arise as the symplectic quotients of a symplectic manifold by a compact torus. (A companion paper examines symplectic quotients by a nonabelian group, showing how to reduce to the maximal torus.) Let X be a symplectic manifold, with a Hamiltonian action of a compact torus T. The main topological result of this paper describes an explicit cobordism that exists between a symplectic quotient of X by T, and a c…
Generalizing local Gromov-Witten theory, in this paper we define a local version of symplectic field theory. When the symplectic manifold with cylindrical ends is four-dimensional and the underlying simple curve is regular by automatic transversality, we establish a transversality result for all its multiple covers and discuss the resulting algebraic structures.
In this note, we reformulate Donaldson's construction as a compactness result. Approximately holomorphic sections accumulate to "limit holomorphic sections" and uniform transversality properties of the approximately holomorphic sections correspond to transversality properties of their limits.
We characterize transversality, non-transversality properties on the moduli space of genus 0 stable maps to a semipositive symplectic manifold of dimension 4, when GW([point],...,[point]) is enumerative. In particular, we show that the intersection theoretic property depends on the existence of a critical point on a stable map.
In this paper the Gromov-Witten invariants on a class of noncompact symplectic manifolds are defined by combining Ruan-Tian's method with that of McDuff-Salamon. The main point of the arguments is to introduce a method dealing with the transversality problems in the case of noncompact manifolds. Moreover, the techniques are also used to study the topological rigidity of Hamiltonian loops with compact support on a class of noncompact symplectic manifolds.
Quantization problems suggest that the category of symplectic manifolds and symplectomorphisms be augmented by the inclusion of canonical relations as morphisms. These relations compose well when a transversality condition is satisfied, but the failure of the most general compositions to be smooth manifolds means that the canonical relations do not comprise the morphisms of a category. We discuss several existing and potential remedies to the nontransversality problem. Some of these involve restriction to classes of lagrangian submanifolds for which the transversality property automatically ho…
We study the classical action functional $\SMC_V$ on the free loop space of a closed, finite dimensional Riemannian manifold $M$ and the symplectic action $\AMC_V$ on the free loop space of its cotangent bundle. The critical points of both functionals can be identified with the set of perturbed closed geodesics in $M$. The potential $V\in C^\infty(M\times S^1,\R)$ serves as perturbation and we show that both functionals are Morse for generic $V$. In this case we prove that the Morse index of a critical point $x$ of $\SMC_V$ equals minus its Conley-Zehnder index when viewed as a critical point …
Given a projective sequence of Banach bundles, each one provided with a of weak symplectic form, we look for conditions under which, the corresponding sequence of weak symplectic forms gives rise to weak symplectic form on the projective limit bundle. Then we apply this results to the tangent bundle of a projective limit of Banach manifolds. This naturally leads to ask about conditions under which the Darboux Theorem is also true on the projective limit of Banach manifolds. We will give some necessary and some sufficient conditions so that such a result is true. Then we discuss why, in general…
We characterize transversality, non-transversality properties on the moduli space of genus 0 stable maps to a rational projective surface. If a target space is equipped with a real structure, i.e, anti-holomorphic involution, then the results have real enumerative applications. Firstly, we can define a real version of Gromov-Witten invariants. Secondly, we can prove the invariance of Welschinger's invariant in algebraic geometric category.
The construction of manifold structures and fundamental classes on the (compactified) moduli spaces appearing in Gromov-Witten theory is a long-standing problem. Up until recently, most successful approaches involved the imposition of topological constraints like semi-positivity on the underlying symplectic manifold to deal with this situation. One conceptually very appealing approach that removed most of these restrictions is the approach by K. Cieliebak and K. Mohnke via complex hypersurfaces, [CM07]. In contrast to other approaches using abstract perturbation theory, it has the advantage th…
We determine the homotopy type of isotropic torus complements in closed contact manifolds in terms of Reeb dynamics of special contact forms. For that we utilize holomorphic curve techniques known from symplectic field theory as Gromov-Hofer compactness and localized transversality on non-compact contact manifolds.
This paper is concerned with the rational symplectic field theory in the Floer case. For this observe that in the general geometric setup for symplectic field theory the contact manifolds can be replaced by mapping tori of symplectic manifolds with symplectomorphisms. While the cylindrical contact homology is given by the Floer homologies of powers of the symplectomorphism, the other algebraic invariants of symplectic field theory provide natural generalizations of symplectic Floer homology. For symplectically aspherical manifolds and Hamiltonian symplectomorphisms we study the moduli spaces o…
Polyfold theory, as developed by Hofer, Wysocki, and Zehnder, is a relatively new approach to resolving transversality issues that arise in the study of $J$-holomorphic curves in symplectic geometry. This approach has recently led to a well-defined Gromov-Witten invariant for $J$-holomorphic curves of arbitrary genus, and for all closed symplectic manifolds. The Gromov-Witten axioms, as originally described by Kontsevich and Manin, give algebraic relationships between the Gromov-Witten invariants. In this paper, we prove the Gromov-Witten axioms for the polyfold Gromov-Witten invariants.
We prove that in closed almost complex manifolds of any dimension, generic perturbations of the almost complex structure suffice to achieve transversality for all unbranched multiple covers of simple pseudoholomorphic curves with deformation index zero. A corollary is that the Gromov-Witten invariants (without descendants) of symplectic 4-manifolds can always be computed as a signed and weighted count of honest J-holomorphic curves for generic tame J: in particular, each such invariant is an integer divided by a weighting factor that depends only on the divisibility of the corresponding homolo…
In this paper, we construct the moduli space of marked oper structures on a closed, oriented smooth surface of negative Euler characteristic as a holomorphic fiber bundle over Teichmüller space. We prove that the holonomy map from the space of marked oper structures to the moduli space of reductive flat bundles is a holomorphic immersion, generalizing the known results for the moduli space of marked complex projective structures. Finally, we prove that the symplectic structure on the moduli space of marked complex projective structures extends to a pre-symplectic structure on the moduli space …
We introduce group actions on polyfolds and polyfold bundles. We prove quotient theorems for polyfolds, when the group action has finite isotropy. We prove that the sc-Fredholm property is preserved under quotient if the base polyfold is infinite dimensional. The quotient construction is the main technical tool in the construction of equivariant fundamental class in [42]. We also analyze the equivariant transversality near the fixed locus in the polyfold setting. In the case of $S^1$-action with fixed locus, we give a sufficient condition for the existence of equivariant transverse perturbatio…
We construct smooth actions of arbitrary compact Lie groups on complex projective spaces, such that the corresponding transformations arising from the group action do not preserve any symplectic structure on the complex projective space.
A symplectic manifold that is obtained from the complex projective plane by k blowups is encoded by k+1 parameters: the size of the initial complex projective plane, and the sizes of the blowups. We determine which values of these parameters yield symplectomorphic manifolds.
We use a neck stretching argument for holomorphic curves to produce symplectic disks of small area and Maslov class with boundary on Lagrangian submanifolds of nonpositive curvature. Applications include the proof of Audin's conjecture on the Maslov class of Lagrangian tori in linear symplectic space, the construction of a new symplectic capacity, obstructions to Lagrangian embeddings into uniruled symplectic manifolds, a quantitative version of Arnold's chord conjecture, and estimates on the size of Weinstein neighbourhoods. The main technical ingredient is transversality for the relevant mod…
Inspired by the results on symmetries of the symplectic Dirac operator, we realize symplectic spinor fields and the symplectic Dirac operator in the framework of (the double cover of) homogeneous projective structure in two real dimensions. The symmetry group of the homogeneous model of the double cover of projective geometry in two real dimensions is $\widetilde{\mathrm{SL}}(3,{\mathbb R})$.
Suppose M be the projective limit of weak symplectic Banach manifolds \{(M_i,ϕ_{ij})\}_{i,j\in\mathbb N}, where M_i are modeled over reflexive Banach space and σis compatible with the inverse system(defined in the article). We associate to each point x\in M, a Fréchet space H_x(defined in section 3). We prove that if H_x are locally constant, then with certain smoothness and boundedness condition, there exists Darboux chart for the weak symplectic structure.
After reviewing recent results on symplectic Lefschetz pencils and symplectic branched covers of CP^2, we describe a new construction of maps from symplectic manifolds of any dimension to CP^2 and the associated monodromy invariants. We also show that a dimensional induction process makes it possible to describe any compact symplectic manifold by a series of words in braid groups and a word in a symmetric group.
We prove the transversality result necessary for defining local Morse chain complexes with finite cyclic group symmetry. Our arguments use special regularized distance functions constructed using classical covering lemmas, and an inductive perturbation process indexed by the strata of the isotropy set. A global existence theorem for symmetric Morse-Smale pairs is also proved. Regarding applications, we focus on Hamiltonian dynamics and rigorously establish a local contact homology package based on discrete action functionals. We prove a persistence theorem, analogous to the classical shifting …
We prove, in a geometric way, that the standard contact structure on the real projective space of dimension $2n-1$ is not Liouville fillable for $n \ge 3$ and odd. We also prove that, for all $n$, semipositive fillings of those contact structures are simply connected. Finally we give yet another proof of the Eliashberg-Floer-McDuff theorem on the diffeomorphism type of the symplectically aspherical fillings of the standard contact structure on the $(2n-1)$-dimensional sphere.
An isomorphism of symplectically tame smooth pseudocomplex structures on the complex projective plane which is a homeomorphism and differentiable of full rank at two points is smooth.
We study smooth projective varieties with small dual variety using methods from symplectic topology. We prove the affine parts of such varieties are subcritical, and that the hyperplane class is invertible in their quantum cohomology. We derive several topological and algebraic geometric consequences from that. The main tool in our work is the Seidel representation associated to Hamiltonian fibrations.
These notes accompany a lecture about the topology of symplectic (and other) quotients. The aim is two-fold: first to advertise the ease of computation in the symplectic category; and second to give an account of some new computations for weighted projective spaces. We start with a brief exposition of how orbifolds arise in the symplectic category, and discuss the techniques used to understand their topology. We then show how these results can be used to compute the Chen-Ruan orbifold cohomology ring of abelian symplectic reductions. We conclude by comparing the several rings associated to a w…
The harmonic cohomology of a Donaldson symplectic submanifold and of an Auroux symplectic submanifold are compared with that of its ambient space. We also study symplectic manifolds satisfying a weakly Lefschetz property, that is, the $s$-Lefschetz propery. In particular, we consider the symplectic blow-ups of the complex projective space along weakly Lefschetz symplectic submanifolds. As an application we construct, for each even integer $s\geq 2$, compact symplectic manifolds which are $s$-Lefschetz but not $(s+1)$-Lefschetz.
We study the relations between the projective and the almost conformally symplectic structures on a smooth even dimensional manifold. We describe these relations by a single almost conformally symplectic connection with totally trace--free torsion sharing the geodesics (up to parametrization) with the projective class. This connection generalizes a (conformally) Fedosov structure depending on the remaining torsion of this distinguished connection. In fact, we see these structures as the almost symplectic analogy of the conformal Riemannian structures, because there is an analogy of the class o…
We prove that every symplectic toric orbifold is a centered reduction of a Cartesian product of weighted projective spaces. A theorem of Abreu and Macarini shows that if the level set of the reduction passes through a non-displaceable set then the image of this set in the reduced space is also non-displaceable. Using this result we show that every symplectic toric orbifold contains a non-displaceable fiber and we identify this fiber.
In this note we observe that Arnold conjecture for the Hamiltonian maps still holds on weighted projective spaces $\CP^n({\bf q})$, and that Arnold conjecture for the Lagrange intersections for $(\CP^n({\bf q}), \RP^n({\bf q}))$ is also true if each weight $q_i\in {\bf q}=\{q_1,..., q_{n+1}\}$ is odd.
We associate curves of isotropic, Lagrangian and coisotropic subspaces to higher order, one parameter variational problems. Minimality and conjugacy properties of extremals are described in terms of these curves.
For a Lagrangian torus A in a simply-connected projective symplectic manifold M, we prove that M has a hypersurface disjoint from a deformation of A. This implies that a Lagrangian torus in a compact hyperkähler manifold is a fiber of an almost holomorphic Lagrangian fibration, giving an affirmative answer to a question of Beauville's. Our proof employs two different tools: the theory of action-angle variables for algebraically completely integrable Hamiltonian systems and Wielandt's theory of subnormal subgroups.
We prove that the kernels of the restrictions of symplectic Dirac or symplectic Dirac-Dolbeault operators on natural subspaces of polynomial valued spinor fields are finite dimensional on a compact symplectic manifold. We compute those kernels for the complex projective spaces. We construct injections of subgroups of the symplectic group (the pseudo-unitary group and the stabilizer of a Lagrangian subspace) in the group Mpc and classify G-invariant Mpc-structures on symplectic spaces with a G-action. We prove a variant of Parthasarathy's formula for the commutator of two symplectic Dirac-type …
The space of symplectic connections on a symplectic manifold is a symplectic affine space. M. Cahen and S. Gutt showed that the action of the group of Hamiltonian diffeomorphisms on this space is Hamiltonian and calculated the moment map. This is analogous to, but distinct from, the action of Hamiltonian diffeomorphisms on the space of compatible almost complex structures that motivates study of extremal Kähler metrics. In particular, moment constant connections are critical, where a symplectic connection is \textit{critical} if it is critical, with respect to arbitrary variations, for the $L^…
A near-symplectic structure on a 4-manifold is a closed 2-form that is symplectic away from the 1-dimensional submanifold along which it vanishes and that satisfies a certain transversality condition along this vanishing locus. We investigate near-symplectic 4-manifolds equipped with singular Lagrangian torus fibrations which are locally induced by effective Hamiltonian torus actions. We show how such a structure is completely characterized by a singular integral affine structure on the base of the fibration whenever the vanishing locus is nonempty. The base equipped with this geometric struct…
We introduce a natural symplectic structure on the moduli space of quadratic differentials with simple zeros and describe its Darboux coordinate systems in terms of so-called homological coordinates. We then show that this structure coincides with the canonical Poisson structure on the cotangent bundle of the moduli space of Riemann surfaces, and therefore the homological coordinates provide a new system of Darboux coordinates. We define a natural family of commuting "homological flows" on the moduli space of quadratic differentials and find the corresponding action-angle variables. The space …
A log symplectic manifold is a complex manifold equipped with a complex symplectic form that has simple poles on a hypersurface. The possible singularities of such a hypersurface are heavily constrained. We introduce the notion of an elliptic point of a log symplectic structure, which is a singular point at which a natural transversality condition involving the modular vector field is satisfied, and we prove a local normal form for such points that involves the simple elliptic surface singularities $\tilde{E}_6,\tilde{E}_7$ and $\tilde{E}_8$. Our main application is to the classification of Po…
Let $X$ be a union of a sequence of symplectic manifolds of increasing dimension and let $M$ be a manifold with a closed $2$-form $ω$. We use Tischler's elementary method for constructing symplectic embeddings in complex projective space to show that the map from the space of embeddings of $M$ in $X$ to the cohomology class of $ω$ given by pulling back the limiting symplectic form on $X$ is a weak Serre fibration. Using the same technique we prove that, if $b_2(M)<\infty$, any compact family of closed $2$-forms on $M$ can be obtained by restricting a standard family of forms on a product of co…
Recently, extending work by Karshon, Kessler and Pinsonnault, Borisov and McDuff showed that a given symplectic manifold $(M,ω)$ has a finite number of distinct toric structures. Moreover, McDuff also showed a product of two projective spaces $\bC P^r\times \bC P^s$ with any given symplectic form has a unique toric structure provided that $r,s\geq 2$. In contrast, the product $\bC P^r \times \bC P^1$ can be given infinitely many distinct toric structures, though only a finite number of these are compatible with each given symplectic form $ω$. In this paper we extend these results by considerin…
We prove that a resolution of singularities of any finite covering of the projective plane branched along a Hurwitz curve $\bar H$ and, maybe, along a line "at infinity" can be embedded as a symplectic submanifold into some projective algebraic manifold equipped with an integer Kähler symplectic form (assuming that if $\bar H$ has negative nodes, then the covering is non-singular over them). For cyclic coverings we can realize this embeddings into a rational algebraic 3--fold. Properties of the Alexander polynomial of $\bar{H}$ are investigated and applied to the calculation of the first Betti…
In analogy to the relation between symplectic packings and symplectic blow ups we show that multiple point Seshadri constants on projective complex surfaces can be calculated as the supremum of radii of multiple Kähler ball embeddings.
By a result of Kedra and Pinsonnault, we know that the topology of groups of symplectomorphisms of symplectic 4-manifolds is complicated in general. However, in all known (very specific) examples, the rational cohomology rings of symplectomorphism groups are finitely generated. In this paper, we compute the rational homotopy Lie algebra of symplectomorphism groups of the 3-point blow-up of the projective plane (with an arbitrary symplectic form) and show that in some cases, depending on the sizes of the blow-ups, it is infinite dimensional. Moreover, we explain how the topology is generated by…
