arXiv subjects

Michael Usher

Publications and source records attributed to Michael Usher.

28 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2009

Duality in filtered Floer-Novikov complexes

We prove that a certain bilinear pairing (analagous to the Poincare-Lefschetz intersection pairing) between filtered sub- and quotient complexes of a Floer-type chain complex and of its "opposite complex" is always nondegenerate on homology. This implies a duality relation for the Oh-Schwarz-type spectral invariants of these complexes which (in Hamiltonian Floer theory) was established in the special case that the period map has discrete image by Entov and Polterovich. The duality relation served as a key lemma in Entov and Polterovich's construction of a Calabi quasimorphism on certain rational symplectic manifolds, and the result that we prove here implies that their construction remains valid when the rationality hypothesis is dropped. Apart from this, we also use the nondegeneracy of the pairing to establish a new formula for what we have previously called the boundary depth of a Floer chain complex; this formula shows that the boundary depth is unchanged under passing to the opposite complex.

math.SG↗

arXiv2009

Vortices and a TQFT for Lefschetz fibrations on 4-manifolds

Adapting a construction of D Salamon involving the U(1) vortex equations, we explore the properties of a Floer theory for 3-manifolds that fiber over S^1 which exhibits several parallels with monopole Floer homology, and in all likelihood coincides with it. The theory fits into a restricted analogue of a TQFT in which the cobordisms are required to be equipped with Lefschetz fibrations, and has connections to the dynamics of surface symplectomorphisms.

math.SG↗

arXiv2008

The sharp energy-capacity inequality

Using the Oh-Schwarz spectral invariants and some arguments of Frauenfelder, Ginzburg, and Schlenk, we show that the π_1-sensitive Hofer-Zehnder capacity of any subset of a closed symplectic manifold is less than or equal to its displacement energy. This estimate is sharp, and implies some new extensions of the Non-Squeezing Theorem.

math.SG↗

arXiv2008

Kodaira dimension and symplectic sums

Modulo trivial exceptions, we show that smoothly nontrivial symplectic sums of symplectic 4-manifolds along surfaces of positive genus are never rational or ruled, and we enumerate each case in which they have Kodaira dimension zero (i.e., are blowups of symplectic 4-manifolds with torsion canonical class). In particular, a symplectic four-manifold of Kodaira dimension zero arises by such a surgery only if it is diffeomorphic to a blowup either of the K3 surface, the Enriques surface, or a member of a particular family of T^2-bundles over T^2 each having b_1=2.

math.SG↗

arXiv2008

Floer homology in disc bundles and symplectically twisted geodesic flows

We show that if K: P \to R is an autonomous Hamiltonian on a symplectic manifold (P,Ω) which attains 0 as a Morse-Bott nondegenerate minimum along a symplectic submanifold M, and if c_1(TP)|_M vanishes in real cohomology, then the Hamiltonian flow of K has contractible periodic orbits with bounded period on all sufficiently small energy levels. As a special case, if the geodesic flow on the cotangent bundle of M is twisted by a symplectic magnetic field form, then the resulting flow has contractible periodic orbits on all low energy levels. These results were proven by Ginzburg and Gürel when Ω|_M is spherically rational, and our proof builds on their work; the argument involves constructing and carefully analyzing at the chain level a version of filtered Floer homology in the symplectic normal disc bundle to M.

math.SG↗

arXiv2007

Minimality and symplectic sums

Let X_1, X_2 be symplectic 4-manifolds containing symplectic surfaces F_1,F_2 of identical positive genus and opposite squares. Let Z denote the symplectic sum of X_1 and X_2 along the F_k. Using relative Gromov--Witten theory, we determine precisely when the symplectic 4-manifold Z is minimal (i.e., cannot be blown down); in particular, we prove that Z is minimal unless either: one of the X_k contains a (-1)-sphere disjoint from F_k; or one of the X_k admits a ruling with F_k as a section. As special cases, this proves a conjecture of Stipsicz asserting the minimality of fiber sums of Lefschetz fibrations, and implies that the non-spin examples constructed by Gompf in his study of the geography problem are minimal.

math.SG↗

arXiv2007

Spectral numbers in Floer theories

The chain complexes underlying Floer homology theories typically carry a real-valued filtration, allowing one to associate to each Floer homology class a spectral number defined as the infimum of the filtration levels of chains representing that class. These spectral numbers have been studied extensively in the case of Hamiltonian Floer homology by Oh, Schwarz, and others. We prove that the spectral number associated to any nonzero Floer homology class is always finite, and that the infimum in the definition of the spectral number is always attained. In the Hamiltonian case, this implies that what is known as the ``nondegenerate spectrality'' axiom holds on all closed symplectic manifolds. Our proofs are entirely algebraic and apply to any Floer-type theory (including Novikov homology) satisfying certain standard formal properties. The key ingredient is a theorem about the existence of best approximations of arbitrary elements of finitely generated free modules over Novikov rings by elements of prescribed submodules with respect to a certain family of non-Archimedean metrics.

math.SG↗

arXiv2006

Symplectic forms and surfaces of negative square

We introduce an analogue of the inflation technique of Lalonde-McDuff, allowing us to obtain new symplectic forms from symplectic surfaces of negative self-intersection in symplectic four-manifolds. We consider the implications of this construction for the symplectic cones of Kähler surfaces, proving along the way a result which can be used to simplify the intersections of distinct pseudoholomorphic curves via a perturbation.

math.SG↗

arXiv2004

Standard surfaces and nodal curves in symplectic 4-manifolds

Continuing the program of math.SG/0012067 and math.SG/0310450, we introduce refinements of the Donaldson-Smith standard surface count which are designed to count nodal pseudoholomorphic curves and curves with a prescribed decomposition into reducible components. In cases where a corresponding analogue of the Gromov-Taubes invariant is easy to define, our invariants agree with those analogues. We also prove a vanishing result for some of the invariants that count nodal curves.

math.SG↗

arXiv2004

The Gromov invariant and the Donaldson-Smith standard surface count

Simon Donaldson and Ivan Smith recently studied symplectic surfaces in symplectic 4-manifolds X by introducing an invariant DS associated to any Lefschetz fibration on blowups of X which counts holomorphic sections of a relative Hilbert scheme that is constructed from the fibration. Smith has shown that DS satisfies a duality relation identical to that satisfied by the Gromov invariant Gr introduced by Clifford Taubes, which led Smith to conjecture that DS=Gr provided that the fibration has high enough degree. This paper proves that conjecture. The crucial technical ingredient is an argument which allows us to work with curves C in the blown-up 4-manifold that are made holomorphic by an almost complex structure which is integrable near C and with respect to which the fibration is a pseudoholomorphic map.

math.SG↗