Weak symplectic fillings and holomorphic curves

Klaus Niederkrüger; Chris Wendl

Annales scientifiques de l'École Normale Supérieure (2011)

  • Volume: 44, Issue: 5, page 801-853
  • ISSN: 0012-9593

Abstract

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We prove several results on weak symplectic fillings of contact 3 -manifolds, including: (1) Every weak filling of any planar contact manifold can be deformed to a blow up of a Stein filling. (2) Contact manifolds that have fully separating planar torsion are not weakly fillable—this gives many new examples of contact manifolds without Giroux torsion that have no weak fillings. (3) Weak fillability is preserved under splicing of contact manifolds along symplectic pre-Lagrangian tori—this gives many new examples of contact manifolds without Giroux torsion that are weakly but not strongly fillable. We establish the obstructions to weak fillings via two parallel approaches using holomorphic curves. In the first approach, we generalize the original Gromov-Eliashberg “Bishop disk” argument to study the special case of Giroux torsion via a Bishop family of holomorphic annuli with boundary on an “anchored overtwisted annulus”. The second approach uses punctured holomorphic curves, and is based on the observation that every weak filling can be deformed in a collar neighborhood so as to induce a stable Hamiltonian structure on the boundary. This also makes it possible to apply the techniques of Symplectic Field Theory, which we demonstrate in a test case by showing that the distinction between weakly and strongly fillable translates into contact homology as the distinction between twisted and untwisted coefficients.

How to cite

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Niederkrüger, Klaus, and Wendl, Chris. "Weak symplectic fillings and holomorphic curves." Annales scientifiques de l'École Normale Supérieure 44.5 (2011): 801-853. <http://eudml.org/doc/272220>.

@article{Niederkrüger2011,
abstract = {We prove several results on weak symplectic fillings of contact $3$-manifolds, including: (1) Every weak filling of any planar contact manifold can be deformed to a blow up of a Stein filling. (2) Contact manifolds that have fully separating planar torsion are not weakly fillable—this gives many new examples of contact manifolds without Giroux torsion that have no weak fillings. (3) Weak fillability is preserved under splicing of contact manifolds along symplectic pre-Lagrangian tori—this gives many new examples of contact manifolds without Giroux torsion that are weakly but not strongly fillable. We establish the obstructions to weak fillings via two parallel approaches using holomorphic curves. In the first approach, we generalize the original Gromov-Eliashberg “Bishop disk” argument to study the special case of Giroux torsion via a Bishop family of holomorphic annuli with boundary on an “anchored overtwisted annulus”. The second approach uses punctured holomorphic curves, and is based on the observation that every weak filling can be deformed in a collar neighborhood so as to induce a stable Hamiltonian structure on the boundary. This also makes it possible to apply the techniques of Symplectic Field Theory, which we demonstrate in a test case by showing that the distinction between weakly and strongly fillable translates into contact homology as the distinction between twisted and untwisted coefficients.},
author = {Niederkrüger, Klaus, Wendl, Chris},
journal = {Annales scientifiques de l'École Normale Supérieure},
keywords = {contact manifolds; symplectic manifolds; weak fillability; holomorphic curves},
language = {eng},
number = {5},
pages = {801-853},
publisher = {Société mathématique de France},
title = {Weak symplectic fillings and holomorphic curves},
url = {http://eudml.org/doc/272220},
volume = {44},
year = {2011},
}

TY - JOUR
AU - Niederkrüger, Klaus
AU - Wendl, Chris
TI - Weak symplectic fillings and holomorphic curves
JO - Annales scientifiques de l'École Normale Supérieure
PY - 2011
PB - Société mathématique de France
VL - 44
IS - 5
SP - 801
EP - 853
AB - We prove several results on weak symplectic fillings of contact $3$-manifolds, including: (1) Every weak filling of any planar contact manifold can be deformed to a blow up of a Stein filling. (2) Contact manifolds that have fully separating planar torsion are not weakly fillable—this gives many new examples of contact manifolds without Giroux torsion that have no weak fillings. (3) Weak fillability is preserved under splicing of contact manifolds along symplectic pre-Lagrangian tori—this gives many new examples of contact manifolds without Giroux torsion that are weakly but not strongly fillable. We establish the obstructions to weak fillings via two parallel approaches using holomorphic curves. In the first approach, we generalize the original Gromov-Eliashberg “Bishop disk” argument to study the special case of Giroux torsion via a Bishop family of holomorphic annuli with boundary on an “anchored overtwisted annulus”. The second approach uses punctured holomorphic curves, and is based on the observation that every weak filling can be deformed in a collar neighborhood so as to induce a stable Hamiltonian structure on the boundary. This also makes it possible to apply the techniques of Symplectic Field Theory, which we demonstrate in a test case by showing that the distinction between weakly and strongly fillable translates into contact homology as the distinction between twisted and untwisted coefficients.
LA - eng
KW - contact manifolds; symplectic manifolds; weak fillability; holomorphic curves
UR - http://eudml.org/doc/272220
ER -

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