Related papers: Positive factorizations of mapping classes
We prove that there exists no a priori bound on the Euler characteristic of a closed symplectic 4-manifold coming solely from the genus of a compatible Lefschetz pencil on it, nor is there a similar bound for Stein fillings of a contact…
On a compact oriented surface of genus $g$ with $n\geq 1$ boundary components, $\delta_1, \delta_2,\ldots, \delta_n$, we consider positive factorizations of the boundary multitwist $t_{\delta_1} t_{\delta_2} \cdots t_{\delta_n}$, where…
The well-known fact that any genus $g$ symplectic Lefschetz fibration $ X^{4}\to S^{2}$ is given by a word that is equal to the identity element in the mapping class group and each of whose elements is given by a positive Dehn twist,…
We initiate a study of positive multisections of Lefschetz fibrations via positive factorizations in framed mapping class groups of surfaces. Using our methods, one can effectively capture various interesting symplectic surfaces in…
We prove that any symplectic 4-manifold which is not a rational or ruled surface, after sufficiently many blow-ups, admits an arbitrary number of nonisomorphic Lefschetz fibrations of the same genus which cannot be obtained from one another…
The purpose of this note is to explain a combinatorial description of closed smooth oriented 4-manifolds in terms of positive Dehn twist factorizations of surface mapping classes, and further explore these connections. This is obtained via…
We show that there are contact 3-manifolds of support genus one which admit infinitely many Stein fillings, but do not admit arbitrarily large ones. These Stein fillings arise from genus-1 allowable Lefschetz fibrations with distinct…
We describe symplectic mapping class relations between products of positive Dehn twists along Lagrangian spheres in Weinstein $4$-manifolds, all of which are affine $\mathbb{C}$ varieties. The relations are obtained by applying…
Generalizing work of I. Baykur, K. Hayano, and N. Monden (arXiv:1903.02906), we construct infinite families of symplectic 4-dimensional manifolds, obtained as total spaces of Lefschetz pencils constructed by explicit monodromy…
Questions of geography of various classes of $4$-manifolds have been a central motivating question in $4$-manifold topology. Baykur and Korkmaz asked which small, simply connected, minimal $4$-manifolds admit a genus $2$ Lefschetz…
The first aim of this paper is to give four types of examples of surface bundles over surfaces with non-zero signature. The first example is with base genus 2, a prescribed signature, a 0-section and the fiber genus greater than a certain…
We study Lefschetz pencils on symplectic four-manifolds via the associated spheres in the moduli spaces of curves, and in particular their intersections with certain natural divisors. An invariant defined from such intersection numbers can…
We show that any ruled surface $X$ with $\chi(X) < 0$ admits infinitely many inequivalent Lefschetz pencils of fixed genus and number of base points. Our proof proceeds by building infinitely many inequivalent Lefschetz fibrations on a…
We find a new relation among right-handed Dehn twists in the mapping class group of a $k$-holed torus for $4 \leq k \leq 9$. This relation induces an elliptic Lefschetz pencil structure on the four-manifold \cp $#(9-k)$ \cpb $ $ with $k$…
We investigate the possible self-intersection numbers for sections of surface bundles and Lefschetz fibrations over surfaces. When the fiber genus g and the base genus h are positive, we prove that the adjunction bound 2h-2 is the only…
We show that every member of an infinite family of symplectic manifolds constructed by R. Inanc Baykur, Kenta Hayano, and Naoyuki Monden (arXiv:1903:02906) is diffeomorphic to an elliptic surface. As a result: (1) the symplectic Calabi-Yau…
We study diffeomorphisms of compact, oriented surfaces, developing methods of distinguishing those which have positive factorizations into Dehn twists from those which satisfy the weaker condition of right veering. We use these to construct…
We explicitly produce symplectic genus-3 Lefschetz pencils (with base points), whose total spaces are homeomorphic but not diffeomorphic to rational surfaces CP^2 # p (-CP^2) for p= 7, 8, 9. We then give a new construction of an infinite…
We construct a relation among right-handed Dehn twists in the mapping class group of a compact oriented surface of genus g with 4g+4 boundary components. This relation gives an explicit topological description of 4g+4 disjoint (-1)-sections…
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…