Related papers: Representing homology classes by symplectic surfac…

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…

Let (M,\omega) 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…

For each member of an infinite family of homology classes in the K3-surface E(2), we construct infinitely many non-isotopic symplectic tori representing this homology class. This family has an infinite subset of primitive classes. We also…

This paper investigates the geometry of a symplectic 4-manifold $(M,\om)$ relative to a J-holomorphic normal crossing divisor S. Extending work by Biran (in Invent. Math. 1999), we give conditions under which a homology class $A\in…

This paper addresses several isotopy problems on $4$-manifolds. First, we classify the isotopy classes of embeddings of $\Sigma$ in $\Sigma\times S^2$ that are geometrically dual to $\{\mbox{pt}\}\times S^2$, where $\Sigma$ is a closed…

Let M be a closed oriented smooth 4-manifold admitting symplectic structures. If M is minimal and has b^+=1, we prove that there is a unique symplectic canonical class up to sign, and any real second cohomology class of positive square is…

We give detailed descriptions of gluing pseudoholomorphic maps in symplectic geometry, especially in the presence of an obstruction bundle. The main motivation is to try to compare the symplectic and enumerative invariants of algebraic…

We construct an invariant of closed ${\rm spin}^c$ 4-manifolds using families of Seiberg-Witten equations. This invariant is formulated as a cohomology class on a certain abstract simplicial complex consisting of embedded surfaces of a…

We establish a criterion that ensures a bounded almost complex curve in a bounded almost complex 4-manifold minimizes genus amongst all smooth surfaces that share its homology class and the transverse link on its boundary. An immediate…

Using the existence of certain symplectic submanifolds in symplectic 4-manifolds, we prove an estimate from above for the number of singular fibers with separating vanishing cycles in minimal Lefschetz fibrations over surfaces of positive…

We explain how a version of Floer homology can be used as an invariant of symplectic manifolds with $b_1>0$. As a concrete example, we look at four-manifolds produced from braids by a surgery construction. The outcome shows that the…

It is the purpose of this paper to construct families of examples of nonsymplectic 4-manifolds which (up to sign) have just one Seiberg-Witten basic class.

In this work we introduce an obstruction for the existence of symplectic structures on nilpotent Lie algebras. Indeed, a necessary condition is presented in terms of the cohomology of the Lie algebra. Using this obstruction we obtain both…

A strategy for constructing an embedded sphere in a 4-manifold realizing a given homology class which has been successfully applied in the past is to represent the class as a first step stably by an embedded sphere, i.e. after adding…

We investigate the extrinsic topology of Lagrangian submanifolds and of their submanifolds in closed symplectic manifolds using Floer homological methods. The first result asserts that the homology class of a displaceable monotone…

We study neighborhoods of configurations of symplectic surfaces in symplectic 4-manifolds. We show that suitably `positive' configurations have neighborhoods with concave boundaries and we explicitly describe open book decompositions of the…

We prove a surface embedding theorem for 4-manifolds with good fundamental group in the presence of dual spheres, with no restriction on the normal bundles. The new obstruction is a Kervaire-Milnor invariant for surfaces and we give a…

We investigate constraints on embeddings of a non-orientable surface in a $4$-manifold with the homology of $M \times I$, where $M$ is a rational homology $3$-sphere. The constraints take the form of inequalities involving the genus and…

We introduce certain homology and cohomology subgroups for any almost complex structure and study their pureness, fullness and duality properties. Motivated by a question of Donaldson, we use these groups to relate J-tamed symplectic cones…

First steps towards a classification of irreducible symplectic 4-folds whose integral 2-cohomology with 4-tuple cup product is isomorphic to that of Hilb^2(K3). We prove that any such 4-fold deforms to an irreducible symplectic 4-fold of…