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In this paper, we study a geometric counterpart of the cyclic vector which allow us to put a rank 2 meromorphic connection on a curve into a ``companion'' normal form. This allow us to naturally identify an open set of the moduli space of…
It is a basic question in contact geometry to classify all non-isotopic tight contact structures on a given 3-manifold. If the manifold has a boundary, we need also specify the dividing set on the boundary. In this paper, we answer the…
In this paper, we collect various structural results to determine when an integral homology $3$--sphere bounds an acyclic smooth $4$--manifold, and when this can be upgraded to a Stein manifold. In a different direction we study whether…
We give an overview of various recent results concerning the topology of symplectic 4-manifolds and singular plane curves, using branched covers and isotopy problems as a unifying theme. While this paper does not contain any new results, we…
Previously work of the author with Meier and Starkston showed that every closed symplectic manifold $(X,\omega)$ with a rational symplectic form admits a trisection compatible with the symplectic topology. In this paper, we describe the…
Two constructions of contact manifolds are presented: (i) products of S^1 with manifolds admitting a suitable decomposition into two exact symplectic pieces and (ii) fibre connected sums along isotropic circles. Baykur has found a…
We study the topological obstructions of dynamical convexity on contact manifolds focusing on fillability by cotangent bundles and subcritical surgeries. Using links to algebraic geometry, we motivate and define a stronger version of…
Given a contact structure on a manifold $V$ together with a supporting open book decomposition, Bourgeois gave an explicit construction of a contact structure on $V \times \mathbb{T}^2$. We prove that all such structures are universally…
We give a combinatorial description of the embedded contact homology chain complex of the unit cotangent bundle of the Klein bottle with the standard flat Riemannian metric. Using pseudoholomorphic curves coming from the associated…
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 study the geometry of manifolds carrying symplectic pairs consisting of two closed 2-forms of constant ranks, whose kernel foliations are complementary. Using a variation of the construction of Boothby and Wang we build…
In this article, we completely classify torus bundles over the circle that bound 4-manifolds with the rational homology of the circle. Along the way, we classify certain integral surgeries along chain links that bound rational homology…
We develop a diagrammatic framework for applying the symplectic JSJ decomposition to exact/weak symplectic fillings of 3-dimensional contact manifolds. Namely, we apply the symplectic JSJ decomposition to a contact surgery diagram for some…
Quantized responses are important tools for understanding and characterizing the universal features of topological phases of matter. In this work, we consider a class of topological crystalline insulators in $3$D with $C_n$ lattice rotation…
We complete the classification of symplectic fillings of tight contact structures on lens spaces. In particular, we show that any symplectic filling $X$ of a virtually overtwisted contact structure on $L(p,q)$ has another symplectic…
Given a symplectic manifold, we ask in how many different ways can a torus act on it. Classification theorems in equivariant symplectic geometry can sometimes tell that two Hamiltonian torus actions are inequivalent, but often they do not…
We study weak versus strong symplectic fillability of some tight contact structures on torus bundles over the circle. In particular, we prove that almost all of these tight contact structures are weakly, but not strongly symplectically…
In this note we show that a closed oriented contact manifold is obtained from the standard contact sphere of the same dimension by contact surgeries on isotropic and coisotropic spheres. In addition, we observe that all closed oriented…
Given an integer b and a finitely presented group G we produce a compact symplectic six-manifold with c_1 = 0, b_2 > b, b_3 > b and fundamental group G. In the simply-connected case we can also arrange for b_3 = 0; in particular these…
We realize higher-form symmetries in F-theory compactifications on non-compact elliptically fibered Calabi-Yau manifolds. Central to this endeavour is the topology of the boundary of the non-compact elliptic fibration, as well as the…