We give an overview of various recent results concerning the topology of symplectic 4-manifolds and singular plane curves, using branched covers and isotopy problems as a unifying theme. While this paper does not contain any new results, we hope that it can serve as an introduction to the subject, and will stimulate interest in some of the open questions mentioned in the final section.
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.
The symplectic isotopy conjecture states that every smooth symplectic surface in $CP^2$ is symplectically isotopic to a complex algebraic curve. Progress began with Gromov's pseudoholomorphic curves [Gro85], and progressed further culminating in Siebert and Tian's proof of the conjecture up to degree 17 [ST05], but further progress has stalled. In this article we provide a new direction of attack on this problem. Using a solution to a nodal symplectic isotopy problem we guide model symplectic isotopies of smooth surfaces. This results in an equivalence between the smooth symplectic isotopy pro…
The purpose of this paper is to present some results on the existence of homologous, nonisotopic symplectic or lagrangian surfaces embedded in a simply connected symplectic 4-dimensional manifold.
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.
We define new Hamiltonian isotopy invariants for a monotone Lagrangian torus embedded in a symplectic 4-manifold. We show that, in the standard symplectic 4-space, these invariants distinguish a monotone Clifford torus from a Chekanov torus.
The deformation problem for pseudoholomorphic curves and related geometrical properties of the total moduli space of pseudoholomorphic curves are studied. A sufficient condition for the saddle point property of the total moduli space is established. The local symplectic isotopy problem is formulated and solved for the case of imbedded pseudoholomorphic curves. It is shown that any two symplectically imbedded surfaces Sigma_0, Sigma_1 in CP^2 of the same degree d\le 6 are symplectically isotopic.
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 develop a new algebraic theory of positive braids and conjugacy classes in the braid group $B_3$. We use our theory to establish a complete classification of isotopy classes of degree three symplectic curves in $\mathbb{CP}^2$ with only $A_n$-singularities for $n\geq 1$ (an $A_n$-singularity is locally modelled by the equation $z^2 = w^n$) independent of Gromov's theory of pseudoholomorphic curves. We show that if $C$ and $C'$ are degree three symplectic curves in $\mathbb{CP}^2$ with the same numbers of $A_n$-singularities for each $n\geq 1$, then $C$ is isotopic to $C'$. Furthermore, our …
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…
Pseudodiagrams are knot or link diagrams where some of the crossing information is missing. Pseudoknots are equivalence classes of pseudodiagrams, where equivalence is generated by a natural set of Reidemeister moves. In this paper, we introduce a Gauss-diagrammatic theory for pseudoknots which gives rise to the notion of a virtual pseudoknot. We provide new, easily computable isotopy and homotopy invariants for classical and virtual pseudodiagrams. We also give tables of unknotting numbers for homotopically trivial pseudoknots and homotopy classes of homotopically nontrivial pseudoknots. Sinc…
We study Legendrian singular links up to contact isotopy. Using a special property of the singular points, we define the singular connected sum of Legendrian singular links. This concept is a generalization of the connected sum and can be interpreted as a tangle replacement, which provides a way to classify Legendrian singular links. Moreover, we investigate several phenomena only occur in the Legendrian setup.
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…
Suppose you have a nonorientable Lagrangian surface L in a symplectic 4-manifold. How far can you deform the symplectic form before the smooth isotopy class of L contains no Lagrangians? I solve this question for a particular Lagrangian Klein bottle. I also discuss some related conjectures.
The topology of symplectic 4-manifolds is related to that of singular plane curves via the concept of branched covers. Thus, various classification problems concerning symplectic 4-manifolds can be reformulated as questions about singular plane curves. Moreover, using braid monodromy, these can in turn be reformulated in the language of braid group factorizations. While the results mentioned in this paper are not new, we hope that they will stimulate interest in these questions, which remain essentially wide open.
In this paper we classify, up to rigid isotopy, non-singular real rational curves of degrees less than or equal to 6 in a quadric homeomorphic to the 3-sphere. We also study their connections with rigid isotopy classes of real rational knots in $\mathbb{RP}^3$.
We set up a topological framework for degenerations of symplectic manifolds into singular spaces paying a special attention to the behavior of Lagrangian manifolds and their (holomorphic) membranes. We show that degenerations into singular toric varieties provide a source of exotic Lagrangian tori.
On a Weinstein manifold, we define a constructible co/sheaf of categories on the skeleton. The construction works with arbitrary coefficients, and depends only on the homotopy class of a section of the Lagrangian Grassmannian of the stable symplectic normal bundle. The definition is as follows. Take any, possibly high codimension, exact embedding into a cosphere bundle. Thicken to a hypersurface, and consider the Kashiwara-Schapira stack along the thickened skeleton. Pull back along the inclusion of the original skeleton. Gromov's h-principle for contact embeddings guarantees existence and uni…
We prove the analogue of the Concordance Implies Isotopy in Codimension $\ge 3$ Theorem for link maps, together with some other its singular analogues. In the case of spherical link maps, a stronger result was independently obtained by P. Teichner (by different methods).
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 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 (…
We establish constraints on the topology of smooth Lefschetz fibrations with $4$-dimensional fibers, by studying the family Bauer-Furuta invariant. To compute this invariant, we analyze the framed bordism class of 1-dimensional Seiberg-Witten moduli spaces using the local index theorem by Bismut-Freed. Using this, we deduce new obstructions to the smooth isotopy to the identity for compositions of Dehn twists on $(-2)$-spheres in closed $4$-manifolds. We obtain several applications: (1) We exhibit the first examples of closed simply-connected symplectic $4$-manifolds admitting Torelli symplect…