Related papers: A note on positive definite, symplectic four-manif…

We show that every closed symplectic four-dimensional manifold admits compatible almost Kaehler metrics of negative scalar curvature.

We provide a closed, simply connected, symplectic $6$-manifold having infinitely many codimension $2$ symplectic submanifolds. These are mutually homologous but homotopy inequivalent, and furthermore, they cannot admit complex structures.…

We classify four-dimensional manifolds endowed with symplectic pairs admitting embedded symplectic spheres with non-negative self-intersection, following the strategy of McDuff's classification of rational and ruled symplectic four…

A compact oriented 4-manifold is defined to be of ``superconformal simple type'' if certain polynomials in the basic classes (constructed using the Seiberg-Witten invariants) vanish identically. We show that all known 4-manifolds of…

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…

Here we show that every compact smooth 4-manifold X has a structure of a Broken Lefschetz Fibration (BLF in short). Furthermore, if b_{2}^{+}(X)> 0 then it also has a Broken Lefschetz Pencil structure (BLP) with nonempty base locus. This…

We show that two orientable, four-dimensional folded symplectic toric manifolds are isomorphic provided that their orbit spaces have trivial degree-two integral cohomology and there exists a diffeomorphism of the orbit spaces (as manifolds…

We give elementary proofs of two `folklore' assertions about near-symplectic forms on four-manifolds: that any such form can be modified, by an evolutionary process taking place within a finite set of balls, so as to have a prescribed…

We prove that pseudoholomorphic curves intersect complex 2-cycles positively in almost complex 4-manifolds. This makes possible a general and conceptually simple proof that an almost complex 4-manifold with many curves admits a taming…

It is a well known fact that every embedded symplectic surface $\Sigma$ in a symplectic 4-manifold $(X^4,\omega)$ can be made $J$-holomorphic for some almost-complex structure $J$ compatible with $\omega$. In this paper we investigate when…

Let $M$ be a closed oriented $4$-manifold admitting a rank-$2$ oriented foliation with a metric of leafwise positive scalar curvature. If $b^+>1$, then we will show that the Seiberg-Witten invariant vanishes for all \spinc structures.

In this paper we use the Lubotzky alternative for finitely generated linear groups to determine which 4-manifolds admitting a free circle action can be endowed with a symplectic structure with trivial canonical class. The content of this…

Let M be either CP^2#3CP^2bar or 3CP^2#5CP^2bar. We construct the first example of a simply-connected symplectic 4-manifold that is homeomorphic but not diffeomorphic to M.

We exhibit tight contact structures on 3-manifolds that do not admit any symplectic fillings.

This article presents the constructions of new infinite families of smooth 4-manifolds with the property that any two manifolds in the same family are homeomorphic and, from their construction, seem to be quite different, but cannot be…

In \cite{AP3, AHP}, the first author and his collaborators constructed the irreducible symplectic $4$-manifolds that are homeomorphic but not diffeomorphic to $(2n-1){\mathbb{CP}}^{2}\#(2n-1)\overline{\mathbb{CP}}^{2}$ for each integer $n…

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…

A hypersymplectic structure on a 4-manifold is a triple of symplectic forms for which any non-zero linear combination is again symplectic. In 2006, Donaldson conjectured that on a compact 4-manifold any hypersymplectic structure can be…

We construct an infinite family of homologous, non-isotopic, symplectic surfaces of any genus greater than one in a certain class of closed, simply connected, symplectic four-manifolds. Our construction is the first example of this…

We show that there exist infinitely many closed 3-manifolds that do not embed in closed symplectic 4-manifolds, disproving a conjecture of Etnyre-Min-Mukherjee. To do this, we construct L-spaces that cannot bound positive or negative…