For each positive integer n, Khovanov and Rozansky constructed an invariant of links in the form of a doubly-graded cohomology theory whose Euler characteristic is the sl(n) link polynomial. We use Lagrangian Floer cohomology on some suitable affine varieties to build a similar series of link invariants, and we conjecture them to be equal to those of Khovanov and Rozansky after a collapsation of the bigrading. Our work is a generalization of that of Seidel and Smith, who treated the case n=2.
We present three equivalent definitions of $S^1$-equivariant symplectic homology. We show that, using rational coefficients, the positive part of $S^1$-equivariant symplectic homology is isomorphic to linearized contact homology, when the latter is defined. We present several computations and applications, and introduce a rigorously defined substitute for cylindrical/linearized contact homology based on an $S^1$-equivariant construction.
For any pair of integers $n\geq 1$ and $q\geq 2$, we construct an infinite family of mutually non-isotopic symplectic tori representing the homology class $q[F]$ of an elliptic surface E(n), where $[F]$ is the homology class of the fiber. We also show how such families can be non-isotopically and symplectically embedded into a more general class of symplectic 4-manifolds.
We consider symplectic Floer homology in the lowest nontrivial dimension, that is to say, for area-preserving diffeomorphisms of surfaces. Particular attention is paid to the quantum cap product; we show that it distinguishes the trivial element of the mapping class group from any nontrivial one.
Symplectic Khovanov homology is an invariant of oriented links defined by Seidel and Smith and conjectured to be isomorphic to Khovanov homology. I define morphisms (up to a global sign ambiguity) between symplectic Khovanov homology groups, corresponding to isotopy classes of smooth link cobordisms in 4D between a fixed pair of links. These morphisms define a functor from the category of links and such cobordisms to the category of abelian groups and group homomorphisms up to a sign ambiguity. This provides an extra structure for symplectic Khovanov homology and more generally an isotopy inva…
We prove that Manolescu and Woodward's Symplectic Instanton homology, and its twisted versions are natural, and define maps associated to four dimensional cobordisms within this theory. This allows one to define representations of the mapping class group and the fundamental group of a 3-manifold, and to have a geometric interpretation of the maps appearing in the long exact sequence for symplectic instanton homology, together with vanishing criterions.
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.
The purpose of this mostly expository paper is to discuss a connection between Nielsen fixed point theory and symplectic Floer homology theory for symplectomorphisms of surface and a calculation of Seidel's symplectic Floer homology for different mapping classes. We also describe symplectic zeta functions and asympltotic symplectic invariant. A generalisation of the Poincare- Birkhoff fixed point theorem and Arnold conjecture is proposed.
Let M be a closed, connected, orientable 3-manifold. The purpose of this paper is to study the Seiberg-Witten Floer homology of M given that S^1 X M admits a symplectic form. In particular, we prove that M fibers over the circle if M has first Betti number 1 and S^1 X M admits a symplectic form with non-torsion canonical class.
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…
We use the theory of pseudo-holomorphic quilts to establish a counterpart, in symplectic Floer homology, to the Gysin sequence for the homology of a sphere-bundle. In a motivating class of examples, this "symplectic Gysin sequence" is precisely analogous to an exact sequence describing the behaviour of Seiberg-Witten monopole Floer homology for 3-manifolds under connected sum.
In this article, using combinatorial techniques of mapping class groups, we show that a Stein fillable integral homology $3$-sphere supported by an open book decomposition with page a $4$-holed sphere admits a unique Stein filling up to diffeomorphism. Furthermore, according to a property of deforming symplectic fillings of a rational homology $3$-spheres into strongly symplectic fillings, we also show that a symplectically fillable integral homology $3$-sphere supported by an open book decomposition with page a $4$-holed sphere admits a unique symplectic filling up to diffeomorphism and blow-…
There have been a number of constructions of Lagrangian Floer homology invariants for $3$-manifolds defined in terms of symplectic character varieties arising from Heegaard splittings. With the aim of establishing an Atiyah-Floer counterpart of Kronheimer and Mrowka's singular instanton homology, we generalize one of these, due to H. Horton, to produce a Lagrangian Floer invariant of a knot or link $K \subset Y$ in a closed, oriented $3$-manifold, which we call symplectic instanton knot homology ($\mathrm{SIK}$). We use a multi-pointed Heegaard diagram to parametrize the gluing together of a p…
The symplectic Floer homology HF_*(f) of a symplectomorphism f:S->S encodes data about the fixed points of f using counts of holomorphic cylinders in R x M_f, where M_f is the mapping torus of f. We give an algorithm to compute HF_*(f) for f a surface symplectomorphism in a pseudo-Anosov or reducible mapping class, completing the computation of Seidel's HF_*(h) for h any orientation-preserving mapping class.
For any nonempty, compact and fiberwise convex set $K$ in $T^*\mathbb{R}^n$, we prove an isomorphism between symplectic homology of $K$ and a certain relative homology of loop spaces of $\mathbb{R}^n$. We also prove a formula which computes symplectic homology capacity (which is a symplectic capacity defined from symplectic homology) of $K$ using homology of loop spaces. As applications, we prove (i) symplectic homology capacity of any convex body is equal to its Ekeland-Hofer-Zehnder capacity, (ii) a certain subadditivity property of the Hofer-Zehnder capacity, which is a generalization of a …
In this paper, we collect various structural results to determine when an integral homology $3$--sphere bounds an acyclic smooth $4$--manifold, and when this can be upgraded to a Stein manifold. In a different direction we study whether smooth embedding of connected sums of lens spaces in $\mathbb{C}^2$ can be upgraded to a Stein embedding, and determined that this never happens.
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 …
This paper realises the Khovanov homology of a link in the 3-sphere as a Lagrangian Floer cohomology group, establishing a conjecture of Seidel and the second author. The starting point is the previously established formality theorem for the symplectic arc algebra over a field k of characteristic zero. Here we prove the symplectic cup and cap bimodules which relate different symplectic arc algebras are themselves formal over k, and construct a long exact triangle for symplectic Khovanov cohomology. We then prove the symplectic and combinatorial arc algebras are isomorphic over the integers in …
In this paper we prove two isomorphisms in the local symplectic homology of a simple, which is to say non iterated, isolated Reeb orbit. The isomorphisms are in $S^1$-equivariant and nonequivariant symplectic homology, relating the local Floer homology group of the orbit to that of the return map. The isomorphism we prove in $S^1$-equivariant symplectic homology can be stated succinctly as the local $S^1$-equivariant symplectic homology of a simple isolated Reeb orbit is isomorphic to the local Hamiltonian Floer homology of the return map. We also prove the equivalence of two different definit…
This research announcement continues the study of the symplectic homology of Weinstein manifolds undertaken in [BEE1] where the symplectic homology, as a vector space, was expressed in terms of the Legendrian homology algebra of the attaching spheres of critical handles. Here we express the product and $\BV$-operator of symplectic homology in that context.
Like (co)homology group theory of formal Hamiltonian vector fields on symplectic vector spaces, we try studying homology group theory on symplecit tori introducing the notion of weight.
We construct a spectral sequence converging to symplectic homology of a Lefschetz fibration whose E1 page is related to Floer homology of the monodromy symplectomorphism and its iterates. We use this to show the existence of fixed points of certain symplectomorphisms.
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 …
Starting from a Heegaard splitting of a three-manifold, we use Lagrangian Floer homology to construct a three-manifold invariant, in the form of a relatively Z/8-graded abelian group. Our motivation is to have a well-defined symplectic side of the Atiyah-Floer Conjecture, for arbitrary three-manifolds. The symplectic manifold used in the construction is the extended moduli space of flat SU(2)-connections on the Heegaard surface. An open subset of this moduli space carries a symplectic form, and each of the two handlebodies in the decomposition gives rise to a Lagrangian inside the open set. In…
We establish computational results concerning the Lagrangian capacity from "Cieliebak and Mohnke - Punctured holomorphic curves and Lagrangian embeddings". More precisely, we show that the Lagrangian capacity of a 4-dimensional convex toric domain is equal to its diagonal. The proof involves comparisons between the Lagrangian capacity, the McDuff-Siegel capacities from "McDuff and Siegel - Symplectic capacities, unperturbed curves, and convex toric domains", and the Gutt-Hutchings capacities from "Gutt and Hutchings - Symplectic capacities from positive S1-equivariant symplectic homology". Wor…
These are (heavily revised) notes from lectures given at the AMS Algebraic Geometry meeting in Seattle, 2005. The main topic is symplectic homology seen from the point of view of Lefschetz fibrations. Most of the content is speculative, but some supporting evidence is included.
In this note we prove that a positive multiple of each even-dimensional integral homology class of a compact symplectic manifold $(M^{2n}, ω)$ can be represented as the difference of the fundamental classes of two symplectic submanifolds in $(M^{2n}, ω)$. We also discuss the realizability of integral homology classes by symplectic surfaces in $(M^{2n}, ω)$.
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 show that for each k > 3 there are infinitely many finite type Stein manifolds diffeomorphic to Euclidean space R^{2k} which are pairwise distinct as symplectic manifolds.
The Rabinowitz-Floer homology groups $RFH_*(M,W)$ are associated to an exact embedding of a contact manifold $(M,ξ)$ into a symplectic manifold $(W,ω)$. They depend only on the bounded component $V$ of $W\setminus M$. We construct a long exact sequence in which symplectic cohomology of $V$ maps to symplectic homology of $V$, which in turn maps to Rabinowitz-Floer homology $RFH_*(M,W)$, which then maps to symplectic cohomology of $V$. We compute $RFH_*(ST^*L,T^*L)$, where $ST^*L$ is the unit cosphere bundle of a closed manifold $L$. As an application, we prove that the image of an exact contact…
Let (M,ω) be a compact symplectic manifold, and ϕbe a symplectic diffeomorphism on M, we define a Floer-type homology FH_*(ϕ) which is a gen- eralization of Floer homology for symplectic fixed points defined by Dostoglou and Salamon for monotone symplectic manifolds. These homology groups are modules over a suitable Novikov ring and depend only on ϕup to a Hamiltonian isotopy.
We use positive S^1-equivariant symplectic homology to define a sequence of symplectic capacities c_k for star-shaped domains in R^{2n}. These capacities are conjecturally equal to the Ekeland-Hofer capacities, but they satisfy axioms which allow them to be computed in many more examples. In particular, we give combinatorial formulas for the capacities c_k of any "convex toric domain" or "concave toric domain". As an application, we determine optimal symplectic embeddings of a cube into any convex or concave toric domain. We also extend the capacities c_k to functions of Liouville domains whic…
We study the space of pseudo-holomorphic spheres in compact symplectic manifolds with convex boundary. We show that the theory of Gromov-Witten invariants can be extended to the class of semi-positive manifolds with convex boundary. This leads to a deformation of intersection products on the absolute and relative singular homologies. As a result, absolute and relative quantum homology algebras are defined analogously to the case of closed symplectic manifolds. In addition, we prove the Poincaré-Lefschetz duality for the absolute and relative quantum homology algebras.
We describe how the result in [1] extends to prove the existence of a Serre type spectral sequence converging to the symplectic homology SH_*(M) of an exact Sub-Liouville domain M in a cotangent bundle T*N. We will define a notion of a fiber-wise symplectic homology SH_*(M,q) for each point q in N, which will define a graded local coefficient system on N. The spectral sequence will then have page two isomorphic to the homology of N with coefficients in this graded local system.
We show that a small neighborhood of a closed symplectic submanifold in a geometrically bounded aspherical symplectic manifold has non-vanishing symplectic homology. As a consequence, we establish the existence of contractible closed characteristics on any thickening of the boundary of the neighborhood. When applied to twisted geodesic flows on compact symplectically aspherical manifolds, this implies the existence of contractible periodic orbits for a dense set of low energy values.
If $(X, ω)$ is a symplectic manifold, and $Σ$ is a smooth symplectic submanifold Poincaré dual to a positive multiple of $ω$, $X \setminus Σ$ admits a compactification as a Liouville domain, which we then complete to $(W, dλ)$. Under monotonicity assumptions on $X$ and on $Σ$, we construct a chain complex whose homology computes the Symplectic Homology of $W$. We show the differential is given in terms of Morse contributions, terms computed from Gromov-Witten invariants of $X$ relative to $Σ$ and terms computed from the Gromov-Witten invariants of $Σ$. We use a Morse-Bott model for symplectic …
In this note we prove that the symplectic homology of a Liouville domain W displaceable in the symplectic completion vanishes. Nevertheless if the Euler characteristic of (W,\p W) is odd, the filtered symplectic homologies of W do not vanish and give rise to leafwise intersection points on the symplectic completion of W for a perturbation displacing $W$ from itself. In contrast to the existing results we can find a leafwise intersection point for a given period but its energy varies by period instead.
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…
The purpose of this paper is to give a survey of the various versions of Floer homology for manifolds with contact type boundary that have so far appeared in the literature. Under the name of ``Symplectic homology'' or ``Floer homology for manifolds with boundary'' they bear in fact common features and we shall try to underline the principles that unite them. Once this will be accomplished we shall proceed to describe the peculiarity of each of the constructions and the specific applications that unfold out of it: classification of ellipsoids and polydiscs in $\CC^n$, stability of the action s…
In the setting of symplectic manifolds which are convex at infinity, we use a version of the Aleksandrov maximum principle to derive uniform estimates for Floer solutions that are valid for a wider class of Hamiltonians and almost complex structures than is usually considered. This allows us to extend the class of Hamiltonians which one can use in the direct limit when constructing symplectic homology. As an application, we detect elements of infinite order in the symplectic mapping class group of a Liouville domain, and obtain existence results for translated points.
We study Reeb dynamics on prequantization circle bundles and the filtered (equivariant) symplectic homology of prequantization line bundles, aka negative line bundles, with symplectically aspherical base. We define (equivariant) symplectic capacities, obtain an upper bound on their growth, prove uniform instability of the filtered symplectic homology and touch upon the question of stable displacement. We also introduce a new algebraic structure on the positive (equivariant) symplectic homology capturing the free homotopy class of a closed Reeb orbit -- the linking number filtration -- and use …
We describe a connection between symplectic Floer homology for symplectomorphisms of surface and Nielsen fixed point theory. A new zeta functions and asymptotic invariant of symplectic origin are defined. We show that special values of symplectic zeta functions are Reidemeister torsions.
Let $V$ be a bounded domain with smooth boundary in $\R^n$, and $D^*V$ denote its disc cotangent bundle. We compute symplectic homology of $D^*V$, in terms of relative homology of loop spaces on the closure of $V$. We use this result to show that Floer-Hofer capacity of $D^*V$ is between $2r(V)$ and $2(n+1)r(V)$, where $r(V)$ denotes inradius of $V$. As an application, we study periodic billiard trajectories on $V$.
For a Liouville domain $W$ satisfying $c_1(W)=0$, we propose in this note two versions of symplectic Tate homology $\underrightarrow{H}\underleftarrow{T}(W)$ and $\underleftarrow{H}\underrightarrow{T}(W)$ which are related by a canonical map $κ\colon \underrightarrow{H}\underleftarrow{T}(W) \to \underleftarrow{H}\underrightarrow{T}(W)$. Our geometric approach to Tate homology uses the moduli space of finite energy gradient flow lines of the Rabinowitz action functional for a circle in the complex plane as a classifying space for $S^1$-equivariant Tate homology. For rational coefficients the sy…
We use Liu-Tian's virtual moduli cycle methods to construct detailedly the explicit isomorphism between Floer homology and quantum homology for any closed symplectic manifold that was first outlined by Piunikhin, Salamon and Schwarz for the case of the semi-positive symplectic manifolds.
We show how to compute the Lagrangian Floer homology in the one-point blow up of the proper transform of Lagrangians submanifolds, solely in terms of information of the base manifold. As an example we present an alternative computation of the Lagrangian quantum homology in the one-point blow up of (CP^2,ω) of the proper transform of the Clifford torus.
We show that the differential in positive equivariant symplectic homology or linearized contact homology vanishes for non-degenerate Reeb flows with a continuous invariant Lagrangian subbundle (e.g. Anosov Reeb flows). Several applications are given, including obstructions to the existence of these flows and abundance of periodic orbits for contact forms representing an Anosov contact structure.
We define Floer homology for a time-independent, or autonomous Hamiltonian on a symplectic manifold with contact type boundary, under the assumption that its 1-periodic orbits are transversally nondegenerate. Our construction is based on Morse-Bott techniques for Floer trajectories. Our main motivation is to understand the relationship between linearized contact homology of a fillable contact manifold and symplectic homology of its filling.
We give a definition of symplectic homology for pairs of filled Liouville cobordisms, and show that it satisfies analogues of the Eilenberg-Steenrod axioms except for the dimension axiom. The resulting long exact sequence of a pair generalizes various earlier long exact sequences such as the handle attaching sequence, the Legendrian duality sequence, and the exact sequence relating symplectic homology and Rabinowitz Floer homology. New consequences of this framework include a Mayer-Vietoris exact sequence for symplectic homology, invariance of Rabinowitz Floer homology under subcritical handle…
