We consider the global symplectic classification problem of plane curves. First we give the exact classification result under symplectomorphisms, for the case of generic plane curves, namely immersions with transverse self-intersections. Then the set of symplectic classes form the symplectic moduli space which we completely describe by its global topological term. For the general plane curves with singularities, the difference between symplectomorphism and diffeomorphism classifications is clearly described by local symplectic moduli spaces of singularities and a global topological term. We introduce the symplectic moduli space of a global plane curve and the local symplectic moduli space of a plane curve singularity as quotients of mapping spaces, and we endow them with differentiable structures in a natural way.
Lagrangian curves in 4-space entertain intriguing relationships with second order deformation of plane curves under the special affine group and null curves in a 3-dimensional Lorentzian space form. We provide a natural affine symplectic frame for Lagrangian curves. It allows us to classify Lagrangrian curves with constant symplectic curvatures, to construct a class of Lagrangian tori and determine Lagrangian geodesics.
Log-symplectic structures are Poisson structures that are determined by a symplectic form with logarithmic singularities. We construct moduli spaces of curves with values in a log-symplectic manifold. Among the applications, we classify symplectically ruled log-symplectic $4$ manifolds (both orientable and non-orientable), and obstruct the existence of contact boundary components, in analogy with well-known theorems by McDuff. Moreover, we study certain log-symplectically ruled surfaces, using tools from symplectic field theory.
In this paper we will prove that for a compact, symplectic manifold $(M, ω)$ and for $ω$-compatible almost-complex structure J any properly perturbed J-holomorphic curve has a non-negative symplectic area. This non-negative property provides us with a new obstruction to the bubbling off phenomenon and thus allows us to redefine the Floer symplectic homology. In particular, in subsequent papers, we will prove the Arnold conjecture in both degenerate and non-degenerate cases with integer coefficients for general, symplectic manifolds.
Let (M, g, omega) be a compact, almost-Kaehler Einstein 4-manifold of negative star-scalar curvature. Then (M, omega) is a MINIMAL symplectic 4-manifold of general type. In particular, M cannot be differentiably decomposed as a connected sum N # (-CP_2).
Let (M,ω) be a symplectic manifold, and Sigma a compact Riemann surface. We define a 2-form on the space of immersed symplectic surfaces in M, and show that the form is closed and non-degenerate, up to reparametrizations. Then we give conditions on a compatible almost complex structure J on (M,ω) that ensure that the restriction of the form to the moduli space of simple immersed J-holomorphic Sigma-curves in a homology class A in H_2(M,\Z) is a symplectic form, and show applications and examples. In particular, we deduce sufficient conditions for the existence of J-holomorphic Sigma-curves in …
We consider analytic curves $\nabla^t$ of symplectic connections of Ricci type on the torus $T^{2n}$ with $\nabla^0$ the standard connection. We show, by a recursion argument, that if $\nabla^t$ is a formal curve of such connections then there exists a formal curve of symplectomorphisms $ψ_t$ such that $ψ_t\cdot\nabla^t$ is a formal curve of flat invariant symplectic connections and so $\nabla^t$ is flat for all $t$. Applying this result to the Taylor series of the analytic curve, it means that analytic curves of symplectic connections of Ricci type starting at $\nabla^0$ are also flat. The gr…
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 study the local symplectic algebra of curves. We use the method of algebraic restrictions to classify symplectic $T_7$ singularities. We define discrete symplectic invariants - the Lagrangian tangency orders. We use these invariants to distinguish symplectic singularities of classical $A-D-E$ singularities of planar curves, $S_5$ singularity and $T_7$ singularity. We also give the geometric description of these symplectic singularities.
In \cite{FOinteger}, Fukaya and Ono outlined a way of counting pseudo-holomorphic curves in a general compact symplectic manifold to obtain integer valued invariants. This paper contains the details of Fukaya and Ono's suggested construction for any compact symplectic manifold and a large class of exploded manifolds.
We study the local symplectic algebra of curves. We use the method of algebraic restrictions to classify symplectic $W_8$ and $W_9$ singularities. We use discrete symplectic invariants to distinguish symplectic singularities of the curves. We also give the geometric description of symplectic classes.
Branched covers of orbit cylinders are the basic examples of holomorphic curves studied in symplectic field theory. Since all curves with Fredholm index one can never be regular for any choice of cylindrical almost complex structure, we generalize the obstruction bundle technique of Taubes for determining multiple cover contributions from Gromov-Witten theory to the case of moduli spaces with boundary. Our result proves that the differential in rational symplectic field theory and contact homology is strictly decreasing with respect to the natural action filtration.
We consider a curve of Fredholm pairs of Lagrangian subspaces in a fixed Banach space with continuously varying (weak) symplectic structures. Assuming vanishing index, we obtain intrinsically a continuously varying splitting of the total Banach space into pairs of symplectic subspaces. Using such decompositions we define the curve's Maslov index by symplectic reduction to the classical finite-dimensional case. We prove the transitivity of repeated symplectic reductions and obtain the invariance of the Maslov index under symplectic reduction, while recovering all the standard properties of the …
We consider a continuous curve of self-adjoint Fredholm extensions of a curve of closed symmetric operators with fixed minimal domain $D_m$ and fixed {\it intermediate} domain $D_W$. Our main example is a family of symmetric generalized operators of Dirac type on a compact manifold with boundary with varying well-posed boundary conditions. Here $D_W$ is the first Sobolev space and $D_m$ the subspace of sections with support in the interior. We express the spectral flow of the operator curve by the Maslov index of a corresponding curve of Fredholm pairs of Lagrangian subspaces of the quotient H…
In this paper, we prove that if the area functional of a surface $Σ^2$ in a symplectic manifold $(M^{2n},\barω)$ has a critical point or has a compatible stable point in the same cohomology class, then it must be $J$-holomorphic. Inspired by a classical result of Lawson-Simons, we show how various restrictions of the stability assumption to variations of metrics in the space "projectively induced" metrics are enough to give the desired conclusion.
For a closed oriented smooth 4-manifold X with $b^2_+(X)>0$, the Seiberg-Witten invariants are well-defined. Taubes' "SW=Gr" theorem asserts that if X carries a symplectic form then these invariants are equal to well-defined counts of pseudoholomorphic curves, Taubes' Gromov invariants. In the absence of a symplectic form there are still nontrivial closed self-dual 2-forms which vanish along a disjoint union of circles and are symplectic elsewhere. This paper and its sequel describes well-defined counts of pseudoholomorphic curves in the complement of the zero-set of such "near-symplectic" for…
Let $M$ be a Kähler-Einstein surface with positive scalar curvature. If the initial surface is sufficiently close to a holomorphic curve, we show that the mean curvature flow has a global solution and it converges to a holomorphic curve.
This is one in a series of papers devoted to the foundations of Symplectic Field Theory sketched in [Y Eliashberg, A Givental and H Hofer, Introduction to Symplectic Field Theory, Geom. Funct. Anal. Special Volume, Part II (2000) 560--673]. We prove compactness results for moduli spaces of holomorphic curves arising in Symplectic Field Theory. The theorems generalize Gromov's compactness theorem in [M Gromov, Pseudo-holomorphic curves in symplectic manifolds, Invent. Math. 82 (1985) 307--347] as well as compactness theorems in Floer homology theory, [A Floer, The unregularized gradient flow of…
This is a set of expository lecture notes created originally for a graduate course on holomorphic curves taught at ETH Zurich and the Humboldt University Berlin in 2009/2010. The notes are still incomplete, but due to recent requests from readers, I've decided to make a presentable half-finished version available here. Further chapters will be added in future updates.
We study the group of symplectic birational transformations of the plane. It is proved that this group is generated by $\mathrm{SL}(2,\mathbb{Z})$, the torus and a special map of order $5$, as it was conjectured by A. Usnich. Then we consider a special subgroup $H$, of finite type, defined over any field which admits a surjective morphism to the Thompson group of piecewise linear automorphisms of $\mathbb{Z}^2$. We prove that the presentation for this group conjectured by Usnich is correct.
We give here some extensions of Gromov's and Polterovich's theorems on $\karea$ of $ \mathbb{CP} ^{n}$, particularly in the symplectic and Hamiltonian context. Our main methods involve Gromov-Witten theory, and some connections with Bott periodicity, and loop groups. The argument is closely connected with study of jumping curves in $ \mathbb{CP} ^{n}$, and as an upshot we prove a new symplectic geometric theorem on these jumping curves.
We present an approach to Gromov-Witten invariants that works on arbitrary (closed) symplectic manifolds. We avoid genericity arguments and take into account singular curves in the very formulation. The method is by first endowing mapping spaces from (prestable) algebraic curves into the symplectic manifold with the structure of a Banach orbifold and then exhibiting the space of stable $J$-curves (``stable maps'') as zero set of a Fredholm section of a Banach orbibundle over this space. The invariants are constructed by pairing with a homology class on the locally compact topological space of …
These are notes of lectures given at the NATO Summer School, Montreal 1995. Taubes's recent spectacular work setting up a correspondence between $J$-holomorphic curves in symplectic 4-manifolds and solutions of the Seiberg-Witten equations counts $J$-holomorphic curves in a somewhat new way. The "standard" theory concerns itself with moduli spaces of connected curves, and gives rise to Gromov-Witten invariants. However, Taubes's curves arise as zero sets of sections and so need not be connected. These notes are in the main expository. We first discuss the invariants as Taubes defined them, and…
The aim of this paper is the geometric study of the symplectic operators which are a perturbation of the identity by a Hilbert-Schmidt operator. This subgroup of the symplectic group was introduced in Pierre de la Harpe's classical book of Banach-Lie groups. Throughout this paper we will endow the tangent spaces with different Riemannian metrics. We will use the minimal curves of the unitary group and the positive invertible operators to compare the length of the geodesic curves in each case. Moreover we will study the completeness of the symplectic group with the geodesic distance.
We use virtual neighborhood technique to establish GW-invariants, Quantum cohomology, equivariant GW-invariants, equivariant quantum cohomology and Floer cohomology for general symplectic manifold. We also establish GW-invariants for a family of symplectic manifolds. As a consequence, we prove Arnold conjecture for nondegenerate Hamiltonian symplectomorphisms.
