Related papers: The symplectic Thom conjecture

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…

Seiberg-Witten theory is used to obtain new obstructions to the existence of Einstein metrics on 4-manifolds with conical singularities along an embedded surface. In the present article, the cone angle is required to be of the form 2(pi)/p,…

We demonstrate an obstruction to finding certain splittings of four-manifolds along sufficiently twisted circle bundles over Riemann surfaces, arising from Seiberg-Witten theory. These obstructions are used to show a non-splitting result…

We characterize transversality, non-transversality properties on the moduli space of genus 0 stable maps to a semipositive symplectic manifold of dimension 4, when GW([point],...,[point]) is enumerative. In particular, we show that the…

The polynomial invariants $q_d$ for a large class of smooth 4-manifolds are shown to satisfy universal relations. The relations reflect the possible genera of embedded surfaces in the 4-manifold and lead to a structure theorem for the…

In this paper we show that the Seiberg--Witten invariant is zero for all smooth 4--manifolds with $b_+{>}1$ which admit circle actions that have at least one fixed point. Furthermore, we show that all symplectic 4--manifolds which admit…

We give two constructions of surfaces in simply-connected 4-manifolds with non simply-connected complements. One is an iteration of the twisted rim surgery introduced by the first author. We also construct, for any group G satisfying some…

Friedman and Morgan made the "speculation" that deformation equivalence and diffeomorphism should coincide for algebraic surfaces. Counterexamples, for the hitherto open case of surfaces of general type, have been given in the last years by…

We determine the Seiberg-Witten-Floer homology groups of the three-manifold which is the product of a surface of genus $g \geq 1$ times the circle, together with its ring structure, for spin-c structures which are non-trivial on the…

We prove that every symplectic 4-manifold admits a trisection that is compatible with the symplectic structure in the sense that the symplectic form induces a Weinstein structure on each of the three sectors of the trisection. Along the…

The correlation functions of supersymmetric gauge theories on a four-manifold X can sometimes be expressed in terms of topological invariants of X. We show how the existence of superconformal fixed points in the gauge theory can provide…

Recently L. Nicolaescu and the author formulated a conjecture which relates the geometric genus of a complex analytic normal surface singularity (whose link $M$ is a rational homology sphere) with the Seiberg-Witten invariant of $M$…

In this paper we define a new category of almost complex riemannian 4- manifolds and discuss some basic properties of such pseudo symplectic manifolds. Some motivation based on the Seiberg - Witten theory is imposed.

Taubes has recently defined Gromov invariants for symplectic four-manifolds and related them to the Seiberg-Witten invariants. Independently, Ruan and Tian defined symplectic invariants based on ideas of Witten. In this note, we show that…

We solve a certain case of the minimal genus problem for embedded surfaces in elliptic 4-manifolds. The proofs involve a restricted transitivity property of the action of the orientation preserving diffeomorphism group on the second…

Let E be the total space of a locally trivial torus bundle over the surface \Sigma_g of genus g>1. Using the Seiberg--Witten theory and spectral sequences we prove that E carries a symplectic structure if and only if the homology class of…

A symplectic manifold $(M,\omega)$ is called {\em (symplectically) uniruled} if there is a nonzero genus zero GW invariant involving a point constraint. We prove that symplectic uniruledness is invariant under symplectic blow-up and…

Despite spectacular advances in defining invariants for simply connected smooth and symplectic 4-dimensional manifolds and the discovery of effective surgical techniques, we still have been unable to classify simply connected smooth…

New estimates are derived concerning the behavior of self-dual hamonic 2-forms on a compact Riemannian 4-manifold with non-trivial Seiberg-Witten invariants. Applications include a vanishing theorem for certain Seiberg-Witten invariants on…

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…