Small symplectic caps and embeddings of homology balls in the complex projective plane

Abstract

We present a handlebody construction of small symplectic caps, and hence of small closed symplectic 4-manifolds. We use this to construct handlebody descriptions of symplectic embeddings of rational homology balls in $\mathbb{C}\mathrm{P}^2$, and thereby provide the first examples of (infinitely many) symplectic handlebody decompositions of a closed symplectic 4-manifold. Our constructions provide a new topological interpretation of almost toric fibrations of $\mathbb{C}\mathrm{P}^2$ in terms of symplectic handlebody decompositions.