We prove a compactness theorem for holomorphic curves in 4-dimensional symplectizations that have embedded projections to the underlying 3-manifold. It strengthens the cylindrical case of the SFT compactness theorem by using intersection theory to show that degenerations of such sequences never give rise to multiple covers or nodes, so transversality is easily achieved. This has application to the theory of stable finite energy foliations, and also suggests a new approach to defining SFT-type invariants for contact 3-manifolds, or more generally, 3-manifolds with stable Hamiltonian structures.
This paper is the last in a series of three papers which investigate pseudoholomorphic strips in the symplectisation of a three dimensional closed contact manifold with a mixed boundary condition. We will prove a compactness and an intersection result, and we will investigate the embedding properties of such pseudoholomorphic curves.
Here we extend the notion of target-local Gromov convergence of pseudoholomorphic curves to the case in which the target manifold is not compact, but rather is exhausted by compact neighborhoods. Under the assumption that the curves in question have uniformly bounded area and genus on each of the compact regions (but not necessarily global bounds), we prove a subsequence converges in an exhaustive Gromov sense.
We establish a Gromov compactness theorem for strip shrinking in pseudoholomorphic quilts when composition of Lagrangian correspondences is immersed. In particular, we show that figure eight bubbling occurs in the limit, argue that this is a codimension-$0$ effect, and predict its algebraic consequences -- geometric composition extends to a curved $A_\infty$-bifunctor, in particular the associated Floer complexes are isomorphic after a figure eight correction of the bounding cochain. An appendix with Felix Schmäschke provides examples of nontrivial figure eight bubbles.
Let $Σ$ be a surface with a symplectic form, let $ϕ$ be a symplectomorphism of $Σ$, and let $Y$ be the mapping torus of $ϕ$. We show that the dimensions of moduli spaces of embedded pseudoholomorphic curves in $\R\times Y$, with cylindrical ends asymptotic to periodic orbits of $ϕ$ or multiple covers thereof, are bounded from above by an additive relative index. We deduce some compactness results for these moduli spaces. This paper establishes some of the foundations for a program with Michael Thaddeus, to understand the Seiberg-Witten Floer homology of $Y$ in terms of such pseudoholomorphic c…
We establish a quantitative version of the Gromov compactness theorem for closed genus 0 pseudoholomorphic curves in the setting of a tamed almost complex manifold with bounded geometry.
I give precise iteration formulae for brake orbit in dimension 3 and use these formulae to get some index inequalities for moduli spaces of Real pseudoholomorphic Curves, which are important to establish Real embedded contact homology and Real cylindrical contact homology in dimension 3.
$\mathcal{H}-$holomorphic curves are solutions of a specific modification of the pseudoholomorphic curve equation in symplectizations involving a harmonic $1-$form as perturbation term. In this paper we compactify the moduli space of $\mathcal{H}-$holomorphic curves with a priori bounds on the harmonic $1-$forms.
It's known from from work of Hofer, Wysocki, and Zehnder [1996] and Bourgeois [2002] that in a contact manifold equipped with either a nondegenerate or Morse-Bott contact form, a finite-energy pseudoholomorphic curve will be asymptotic at each of its non removable punctures to a single periodic orbit of the Reeb vector field and that the convergence is exponential. We provide examples here to show that this need not be the case if the contact form is degenerate. More specifically, we show that on any contact manifold $(M, ξ)$ with cooriented contact structure one can choose a contact form $λ$ …
We prove that the moduli space of gauge equivalence classes of symplectic vortices with uniformly bounded energy in a compact Hamiltonian manifold admits a Gromov compactification by polystable vortices. This extends results of Mundet i Riera and Tian for circle actions to the case of arbitrary compact Lie groups. Our argument relies on an a priori estimate for vortices that allows us to apply techniques used by McDuff and Salamon in their proof of Gromov compactness for pseudoholomorphic curves. As an intermediate result we prove a removable singularity theorem for vortices.
We study the intersection theory of punctured pseudoholomorphic curves in $4$-dimensional symplectic cobordisms. We first study the local intersection properties of such curves at the punctures. We then use this to develop topological controls on the intersection number of two curves. We also prove an adjunction formula which gives a topological condition that will guarantee a curve in a given homotopy class is embedded, extending previous work of Hutchings. We then turn our attention to curves in the symplectization $\mathbb{R}\times M$ of a $3$-manifold $M$ admitting a stable Hamiltonian str…
This paper and its prequel ("Part I") prove a generalization of the usual gluing theorem for two index 1 pseudoholomorphic curves U_+ and U_- in the symplectization of a contact 3-manifold. We assume that for each embedded Reeb orbit gamma, the total multiplicity of the negative ends of U_+ at covers of gamma agrees with the total multiplicity of the positive ends of U_- at covers of gamma. However, unlike in the usual gluing story, here the individual multiplicities are allowed to differ. In this situation, one can often glue U_+ and U_- to an index 2 curve by inserting genus zero branched co…
This paper and its sequel prove a generalization of the usual gluing theorem for two index 1 pseudoholomorphic curves u_+ and u_- in the symplectization of a contact 3-manifold. We assume that for each embedded Reeb orbit gamma, the total multiplicity of the negative ends of u_+ at covers of gamma agrees with the total multiplicity of the positive ends of u_- at covers of gamma. However, unlike in the usual gluing story, here the individual multiplicities are allowed to differ. In this situation, one can often glue u_+ and u_- to an index 2 curve by inserting genus zero branched covers of R-in…
In this paper, we generalize construction of Seidel's long exact sequence of Lagrangian Floer cohomology to that of compact Lagrangian submanifolds with vanishing Malsov class on general Calabi-Yau manifolds. We use the framework of anchored Lagrangian submanifolds developed in \cite{fooo:anchor} and some compactness theorem of \emph{smooth} $J$-holomorphic sections of Lefschetz Hamiltonian fibration for a generic choice of $J$. The proof of the latter compactness theorem involves a study of proper pseudoholomorphic curves in the setting of noncompact symplectic manifolds with cylindrical ends…
We give a proof of the Gromov compactness theorem using the language of stable curves (i.e. cusp-curve of Gromov, or stable maps of Kontsevich and Manin) in general setting: An almost complex structure on a target manifold is only continuous and can vary; the curves are only assumed to have fixed ``topological type'', in particular they can be non-closed and the complex structures on them can vary arbitrarily. In connection with this, we study in §2 moduli spaces of nodal curves with boundary and define a natural complex structure for such moduli spaces. We obtain an apriori estimate for pseud…
Here we prove that for each Hamiltonian function $H\in \mathcal{C}^\infty(\mathbb{R}^4, \mathbb{R})$ defined on the standard symplectic $(\mathbb{R}^4, ω_0)$, for which $M:=H^{-1}(0)$ is a non-empty compact regular energy level, the Hamiltonian flow on $M$ is not minimal. That is, we prove there exists a closed invariant subset of the Hamiltonian flow in $M$ that is neither $\emptyset$ nor all of $M$. This answers the four dimensional case of a twenty year old question of Michel Herman, part of which can be regarded as a special case of the Gottschalk Conjecture. Our principal technique is the…
This master thesis looks at the gradient flow of the length functional on embedded loops. The space of embedded loops is endowed with a scale structure so that the length functional becomes scale smooth. For certain underlying manifolds, using the fact that the gradient flow of the length is the same as the curvature flow, a weak compactness property for the gradient flow lines between fixed critical points (geodesics) is proven. Also Floer-Gromov convergence of certain gradient flow lines is achieved. These convergence properties are very similar to those in Morse theory. Figures visualizing …
This is the second of five papers that construct an isomorphism between the Seiberg-Witten Floer homology and the Heegaard Floer homology of a given compact, oriented 3-manifold. The isomorphism is given as a composition of three isomorphisms; the first of these relates a version of embedded contact homology on an an auxillary manifold to the Heegaard Floer homology on the original. This paper describes this auxilliary manifold, its geometry, and the relationship between the generators of the embedded contact homology chain complex and those of the Heegaard Floer chain complex. The pseudoholom…
We study the generalization of quasipositive links from the three-sphere to arbitrary closed, orientable three-manifolds. Our main result shows that the boundary of any smooth, properly embedded complex curve in a Stein domain is a quasipositive link. This generalizes a result due to Boileau and Orevkov, and it provides the first half of a topological characterization of links in three-manifolds which bound complex curves in a Stein filling. Our arguments replace pseudoholomorphic curve techniques with a study of characteristic and open book foliations on surfaces in three- and four-manifolds.
We investigate nicely embedded H--holomorphic maps into stable Hamiltonian three--manifolds. In particular we prove that such maps locally foliate and satisfy a no--first--intersection property. Using the compactness results of arXiv:0904.1603 we show that connected components of the space of such maps can be compactified if they contain a global surface of section. As an application we prove that any contact structure on a 3--manifold admits and H--holomorphic open book decomposition. This work is motivated by the program laid out by Abbas, Cieliebak and Hofer to give a proof to the Weinstein…
We develop new techniques to study regularity questions for moduli spaces of pseudoholomorphic curves that are multiply covered. Among the main results, we show that unbranched multiple covers of closed holomorphic curves are generically regular, and simple index zero curves in dimensions greater than four are generically super-rigid, implying e.g. that the Gromov-Witten invariants of Calabi-Yau 3-folds reduce to sums of local invariants for finite sets of embedded curves. We also establish partial results on super-rigidity in dimension four and regularity of branched covers, and briefly discu…
Embedded contact knot homology (ECK) is a variation on Embedded contact homology (ECH), defined with respect to an open book decomposition compatible with a contact structure on some 3-manifold, M. The knot in question is given by the (null-homologous) binding of the open book and the chain complex is defined in terms of closed orbits of the Reeb vector field and certain pseudoholomorphic curves in the symplectization of the knot complement. In this thesis we first generalize this construction to the case of rational open book decompositions, allowing us to define ECK for rationally null-homol…
We show that sutured embedded contact homology is a natural invariant of sutured contact 3-manifolds which can potentially detect some of the topology of the space of contact structures on a 3-manifold with boundary. The appendix, by C. H. Taubes, proves a compactness result for the completion of a sutured contact 3-manifold in the context of Seiberg-Witten Floer homology, which enables us to complete the proof of naturality.
