Related papers: A degree doubling formula for braid monodromies an…

After reviewing recent results on symplectic Lefschetz pencils and symplectic branched covers of CP^2, we describe a new construction of maps from symplectic manifolds of any dimension to CP^2 and the associated monodromy invariants. We…

This set of lectures aims to give an overview of Donaldson's theory of linear systems on symplectic manifolds and the algebraic and geometric invariants to which they give rise. After collecting some of the relevant background, we discuss…

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…

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…

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…

We consider structures analogous to symplectic Lefschetz pencils in the context of a closed 4-manifold equipped with a `near-symplectic' structure (ie, a closed 2-form which is symplectic outside a union of circles where it vanishes…

We construct branched double coverings by certain direct products of manifolds for connected sums of copies of sphere bundles over the 2-sphere. As an application we answer a question of Kotschick and Loeh up to dimension five. More…

A bifibration structure on a $6$-manifold is a map to either the complex projective plane $\mathbb{P}^2$ or a $\mathbb{P}^1$-bundle over $\mathbb{P}^1$, such that its composition with the projection to $\mathbb{P}^1$ is a ($6$-dimensional)…

Bidouble covers $\pi : S \mapsto Q$ of the quadric Q are parametrized by connected families depending on four positive integers a,b,c,d. In the special case where b=d we call them abc-surfaces. Such a Galois covering $\pi$ admits a small…

Symplectic four-manifolds give rise to Lefschetz fibrations, which are determined by monodromy representations of free groups in mapping class groups. We study the topology of Lefschetz fibrations by analysing the action of the monodromy on…

We compute the mapping class group-valued monodromy of any sufficiently ample linear system on any smooth simply connected projective surface, identifying this with the r-spin mapping class group associated to a maximal root of the adjoint…

A formula for factorizations of the full twist in the braid group $Br_{2m}$ depending on any four factorizations of the full twist in $Br_{m}$ is given. Applying this formula, a symplectic 4-manifold $X$ and two isotopic generic coverings…

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 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…

We extend Donaldson's asymptotically holomorphic techniques to symplectic orbifolds. More precisely, given a symplectic orbifold such that the symplectic form defines an integer cohomology class, we prove that there exist sections of large…

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 show that the image of the pure braid group under the monodromy action on the homology of a cyclic covering of degree d of the projective line is an arithmetic group provided the number of branch points is sufficiently large compared to…

Given a Lagrangian submanifold in a symplectic manifold and a Morse function on the submanifold, we show that there is an isotopic Morse function and a symplectic Lefschetz pencil on the manifold extending the Morse function to the whole…

Branch points of a real 2-surface S in a 4-manifold M generalize the branch points of complex curves in complex surfaces: for example, they can occur as singularities of minimal surfaces. We investigate such a branch point p when S is…

We show that any 4-manifold, after surgery on a curve, admits an achiral Lefschetz fibration. In particular, we show that the connected sum of any simply connected 4-manifold with a 2-sphere bundle over the 2-sphere will admit an achiral…