We study the coherent orientations of the moduli spaces of holomorphic curves in Symplectic Field Theory, generalizing a construction due to Floer and Hofer. In particular we examine their behavior at multiple closed Reeb orbits under change of the asymptotic direction. The orientations are determined by a certain choice of orientation at each closed Reeb orbit, that is similar to the orientation of the unstable tangent spaces of critical points in finite--dimensional Morse theory.
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 any compact symplectic manifold (W,ω) with boundary embeds as a domain into a closed symplectic manifold, provided that there exists a contact plane ξon dW which is weakly compatible with omega, i.e. the restriction ω|ξdoes not vanish and the contact orientation of dW and its orientation as the boundary of the symplectic manifold W coincide. This result provides a useful tool for new applications by Ozsvath-Szabo of Seiberg-Witten Floer homology theories in three-dimensional topology and has helped complete the Kronheimer-Mrowka proof of Property P for knots.
In this paper we study overcomplete systems of coherent states associated to compact integral symplectic manifolds by geometric quantization. Our main goals are to give a systematic treatment of the construction of such systems and to collect some recent results. We begin by recalling the basic constructions of geometric quantization in both the Kahler and non-Kahler cases. We then study the reproducing kernels associated to the quantum Hilbert spaces and use them to define symplectic coherent states. The rest of the paper is dedicated to the properties of symplectic coherent states and the co…
On certain manifolds, the phase which appears in the scalar product of two coherent state vectors is twice the symplectic area of the geodesic triangle determined by the corresponding points on the manifold and the origin of the system of coordinates. This result is proved for compact Hermitian symmetric spaces using the generalization via coherent states of the shape invariant for geodesic triangles and re-obtained on the complex Grassmannian by brute- force calculation.
As was recently pointed out by McMullen and Taubes [Math. Res. Lett. 6 (1999) 681-696], there are 4-manifolds for which the diffeomorphism group does not act transitively on the deformation classes of orientation-compatible symplectic structures. This note points out some other 4-manifolds with this property which arise as the orientation-reversed versions of certain complex surfaces constructed by Kodaira [J. Analyse Math. 19 (1967) 207-215]. While this construction is arguably simpler than that of McMullen and Taubes, its simplicity comes at a price: the examples exhibited herein all have la…
Let C be the contact structure naturally induced on the lens space L(p,q) by the standard contact structure on the three--sphere. We obtain a complete classification of the symplectic fillings of (L(p,q),C) up to orientation-preserving diffeomorphisms. In view of our results, we formulate a conjecture on the diffeomorphism types of the smoothings of complex two-dimensional cyclic quotient singularities.
We provide a translation between Chekanov's combinatorial theory for invariants of Legendrian knots in the standard contact R^3 and a relative version of Eliashberg and Hofer's Contact Homology. We use this translation to transport the idea of ``coherent orientations'' from the Contact Homology world to Chekanov's combinatorial setting. As a result, we obtain a lifting of Chekanov's differential graded algebra invariant to an algebra over Z[t,t^{-1}] with a full Z grading.
We show that any closed oriented 3-manifold can be topologically embedded in some simply-connected closed symplectic 4-manifold, and that it can be made a smooth embedding after one stabilization. As a corollary of the proof we show that the homology cobordism group is generated by Stein fillable 3-manifolds. We also find obstructions on smooth embeddings: there exists 3-manifolds which cannot smoothly embed in a way that appropriately respect orientations in any symplectic manifold with weakly convex boundary. This embedding obstruction can also be used to detect exotic smooth structures on 4…
Let $L \subset \mathbb R \times J^1(M)$ be a spin, exact Lagrangian cobordism in the symplectization of the 1-jet space of a smooth manifold $M$. Assume that $L$ has cylindrical Legendrian ends $Λ_\pm \subset J^1(M)$. It is well known that the Legendrian contact homology of $Λ_\pm$ can be defined with integer coefficients, via a signed count of pseudo-holomorphic disks in the cotangent bundle of $M$. It is also known that this count can be lifted to a mod 2 count of pseudo-holomorphic disks in the symplectization $\mathbb R \times J^1(M)$, and that $L$ induces a morphism between the $\mathbb Z…
We prove that, for nice classes of infinite-dimensional smooth groups G, natural constructions in smooth topology and symplectic topology yield homotopically coherent group actions of G. This yields a bridge between infinite-dimensional smooth groups and homotopy theory. The result relies on two computations: One showing that the diffeological homotopy groups of the Milnor classifying space BG are naturally equivalent to the (continuous) homotopy groups, and a second showing that a particular strict category localizes to yield the homotopy type of BG. We then prove a result in symplectic geome…
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 …
We give a detailed proof of the homological Arnold conjecture for nondegenerate periodic Hamiltonians on general closed symplectic manifolds $M$ via a direct Piunikhin-Salamon-Schwarz morphism. Our constructions are based on a coherent polyfold description for moduli spaces of pseudoholomorphic curves in a family of symplectic manifolds degenerating from $\mathbb{C}\mathbb{P}^1\times M$ to $\mathbb{C}^+ \times M$ and $\mathbb{C}^-\times M$, as developed by Fish-Hofer-Wysocki-Zehnder as part of the Symplectic Field Theory package. To make the paper self-contained we include all polyfold assumpt…
Infinite dimensional Hamiltonian systems appear naturally in the rich algebraic structure of Symplectic Field Theory. Carefully defining a generalization of gravitational descendants and adding them to the picture, one can produce an infinite number of symmetries of such systems . As in Gromov-Witten theory, the study of the topological meaning of gravitational descendants yields new differential equations for the SFT Hamiltonian, where the key point is to understand the dependence of the algebraic constructions on choices of auxiliary data like contact form, cylindrical almost complex structu…
We show that every positive definite closed 4-manifold with $b_2^+>1$ and without 1-handles has a vanishing stable cohomotopy Seiberg-Witten invariant, and thus admits no symplectic structure. We also show that every closed oriented 4-manifold with $b_2^+\not\equiv 1$ and $b_2^-\not\equiv 1\pmod{4}$ and without 1-handles admits no symplectic structure for at least one orientation of the manifold. In fact, relaxing the 1-handle condition, we prove these results under more general conditions which are much easier to verify.
The present note overviews our recent construction of real Gromov-Witten theory in arbitrary genera for many real symplectic manifolds, including the odd-dimensional projective spaces and the renowned quintic threefold, its properties, and its connections with real enumerative geometry. Our construction introduces the principle of orienting the determinant of a differential operator relative to a suitable base operator and a real setting analogue of the (relative) spin structure of open Gromov-Witten theory. Orienting the relative determinant, which in the now-standard cases is canonically equ…
In this paper, we propose a definition of genus one real Gromov-Witten invariants for certain symplectic manifolds with real a structure, including Calabi-Yau threefolds, and use equivariant localization to calculate certain genus one real invariants of the projective space. For this definition, we combine three moduli spaces corresponding to three possible types of involutions on a symplectic torus, by gluing them along common boundaries, to get a moduli space without codimension-one boundary and then study orientation of the total space. Modulo a technical conjectural lemma, we can prove tha…
We give an explicit formula for the holonomy of the orientation bundle of a family of real Cauchy-Riemann operators. A special case of this formula resolves the orientability question for spaces of maps from Riemann surfaces with Lagrangian boundary condition. As a corollary, we show that the local system of orientations on the moduli space of J-holomorphic maps from a bordered Riemann surface to a symplectic manifold is isomorphic to the pull-back of a local system defined on the product of the Lagrangian and its free loop space. As another corollary, we show that certain natural bundles over…
