Related papers: Positive factorizations of mapping classes

The positive Dehn twist expressions for the generalizations of the new involutions described in math.GT/0404310 are presented. The homeomorphism types of the Lefschetz fibrations that they define are determined for several examples.

We explicitly construct genus-2 Lefschetz fibrations whose total spaces are minimal symplectic 4-manifolds homeomorphic to complex rational surfaces CP^2 # p (-CP^2) for p=7, 8, 9, and to 3 CP^2 #q (-CP^2) for q =12,...,19. Complementarily,…

We give an algorithm which produces infinitely many pairwise exotic Stein fillings of the same contact 3-manifolds, applying positive allowable Lefschetz fibrations over the disk. As a corollary, for a large class of Stein fillings, we…

We present a new proof of a result due to Taubes: if X is a closed symplectic four-manifold with b_+(X) > 1+b_1(X) and with some positive multiple of the symplectic form a rational class, then the Poincare dual of the canonical class of X…

Positive Dehn twist products for some elements of finite order in the mapping class group of a 2-dimensional closed, compact, oriented surface $\Sigma_g$, which are rotations of $\Sigma_g$ through $2\pi /p$, are presented. The homeomorphism…

Spinal open book decompositions provide a natural generalization of open book decompositions. We show that any minimal symplectic filling of a contact 3-manifold supported by a planar spinal open book is deformation equivalent to the…

In this second paper of a two-part series, we prove that whenever a contact 3-manifold admits a uniform spinal open book decomposition with planar pages, its (weak, strong and/or exact) symplectic and Stein fillings can be classified up to…

In this article, we present a differential topological construction of symplectic Lefschetz pencils of genus $\frac{(d-1)(d-2)}{2}$ with $d^2$ base points and $3(d-1)^2$ critical points for arbitrary $d\geq 4$, analogous to the holomorphic…

We generalize a classical result concerning smooth germs of surfaces, by proving that monodromies on links of isolated complex surface singularities associated with reduced holomorphic map germs admit a positive factorization. As a…

We address the problem of existence and uniqueness of a factorization of a given element of the modular group into a product of two Dehn twists. As a geometric application, we conclude that any maximal real elliptic Lefschetz fibration is…

In this paper, we examine mapping class group relations of some symplectic manifolds. For each $n\geq 1$ and $k \geq 1$, we show that the $2n$-dimensional Weinstein domain $W = \{f=\delta\} \cap B^{2n+2}$, determined by the degree $k$…

We study maximal stretch laminations associated to certain best Lipschitz circle valued maps in Dehn surgery families of hyperbolic 3-manifolds. For these maps, we give a criterion based on the Thurston norm and Dehn filling slope length to…

In this paper we discuss topological properties of holomorphic Lefschetz pencils on the four-torus. Relying on the theory of moduli spaces of polarized abelian surfaces, we first prove that, under some mild assumption, the (smooth)…

We establish constraints on the topology of smooth Lefschetz fibrations with $4$-dimensional fibers, by studying the family Bauer-Furuta invariant. To compute this invariant, we analyze the framed bordism class of 1-dimensional…

In this paper we obtain the following results: (1) Any compact Stein surface with boundary embeds naturally into a symplectic Lefschetz fibration over the 2-sphere. (2) There exists a minimal elliptic fibration over the 2-disk, which is not…

We use spinal open books to construct contact manifolds with infinitely many different Weinstein fillings in any odd dimension $> 1$, which were previously unknown for dimensions equal to $4n+1$. The argument does not involve understanding…

We show that simply connected contact manifolds that are subcritically Stein fillable have a unique symplectically aspherical filling up to diffeomorphism. Various extensions to manifolds with non-trivial fundamental group are discussed.…

We prove that every strong symplectic filling of a planar contact manifold admits a symplectic Lefschetz fibration over the disk, and every strong filling of the 3-torus similarly admits a Lefschetz fibration over the annulus. It follows…

The global Seiberg-Witten (SW) geometries for rank two theories with eight supercharges are studied. The theory is deformed generically so that there are only simplest $I_1$ or $\tilde{I}_1$ singularities on the Coulomb branch, which then…

We give a list of monodromy factorizations in the pure mapping class group $Mod(T_{d+1})$ of a torus with d+1 marked points that represent lines on a del Pezzo surface Y of degree $d\le4$. These factorizations are lifts of a certain fixed…