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Symplectic rational blowdowns

Margaret Symington
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Abstract

We prove that the rational blowdown, a surgery on smooth 4-manifolds introduced by Fintushel and Stern, can be performed in the symplectic category. As a consequence, interesting families of smooth 4-manifolds, including the exotic $K3$ surfaces of Gompf and Mrowka, admit symplectic structures.

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Margaret Symington. 1998-02-17. Symplectic rational blowdowns. https://arxiv.org/abs/math/9802079

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