Pseudoholomorphic Research Articles

Exponential Decay Estimates and Smoothness of the Moduli Space of Pseudoholomorphic Curves

The compacified moduli space of bordered stable maps carries a Kuranishi structure with boundary. Smoothness of Kuranishi structure along the boundary requires smoothness of coordinate changes along the boundary. The proof of smoothness is written by the authors in [AMS/IP Stud. Adv. Math., 46.1, 2009, xii+396 pp.], [AMS/IP Stud. Adv. math., 46.2, 2009, pp. i–xii and 397–805], and [Surv. Differ. Geom., vol. 22, pp. 133–190, 2018] based on some uniform exponential decay estimates of the stable maps with respect to a parameter T T , the length of the gluing cylindrical neck, near the boundary of the moduli space. In this paper we establish this exponential decay estimates in a precise manner by carefully examining the dependence on the parameter T T of the gluing construction in the setting of bordered Riemann surfaces with boundary punctures. We also show that the smoothness of the collar follows from the aforementioned exponential estimates by taking s = 1 / T s = 1/T as the radial coordinate of the collar.

Hofer–Zehnder capacity of magnetic disc tangent bundles over constant curvature surfaces

We compute the Hofer–Zehnder capacity of magnetic disc tangent bundles over constant curvature surfaces. We use the fact that the magnetic geodesic flow is totally periodic and can be reparametrized to obtain a Hamiltonian circle action. The oscillation of the Hamiltonian generating the circle action immediately yields a lower bound of the Hofer–Zehnder capacity. The upper bound is obtained from Lu’s bounds of the Hofer–Zehnder capacity using the theory of pseudo-holomorphic curves. In our case, the gradient spheres of the Hamiltonian H will give rise to the non-vanishing Gromov–Witten invariant.

Elliptic Reeb orbit on some real projective three-spaces via ECH

We prove the existence of an elliptic Reeb orbit for some contact forms on the real projective three space \mathbb{R}P^{3} . The main ingredient of the proof is the existence of a distinguished pseudoholomorphic curve in the symplectization given by the U map on ECH. Also, we check that the first value on the ECH spectrum coincides with the smallest action of null-homologous orbit sets for 1/4 -pinched Riemannian metrics. This action coincides with twice the length of a shortest closed geodesic. In addition, we compute the ECH spectrum for the irrational Katok metric example.

Transverse foliations in the rotating Kepler problem

We construct finite energy foliations and transverse foliations of neighbourhoods of the circular orbits in the rotating Kepler problem for all negative energies. This paper would be a first step towards our ultimate goal that is to recover and refine McGehee’s results on homoclinics [23] and to establish a theoretical foundation to the numerical demonstration of the existence of a homoclinic–heteroclinic chain in the planar circular restricted three-body problem [20], using pseudoholomorphic curves.

Cyclic Higgs bundles and minimal surfaces in pseudo-hyperbolic spaces

We introduce a type of minimal surface in the pseudo-hyperbolic space Hn,n (with n even) or Hn+1,n−1 (with n odd) coming from cyclic SO0(n,n+1)-Higg bundles. By showing that these surfaces are saddle-type critical points for the area functional, and hence infinitesimally rigid, we get a new proof, for SO0(n,n+1), of Labourie's theorem that the holonomy map restricts to an immersion on the cyclic locus of Hitchin base, and extend it to Collier's components. This implies Labourie's former conjecture in the case of the exceptional group G2′, for which we also show that these minimal surfaces are J-holomorphic curves of a particular type in the almost complex H4,2.

Pseudoholomorphic curves on the LCS-fication of contact manifolds

Abstract For each contact diffeomorphism ϕ : (Q, ξ) → (Q, ξ) of (Q, ξ), we equip its mapping torus Mϕ with a locally conformal symplectic form of Banyaga’s type, which we call the lcs mapping torus of the contact diffeomorphism ϕ. In the present paper, we consider the product Q × S 1 = M id (corresponding to ϕ = id) and develop basic analysis of the associated J-holomorphic curve equation, which has the form ∂ ˉ π w = 0 , w ∗ λ ∘ j = f ∗ d θ $$\bar{\partial}^{\pi} w=0, \quad w^{*} \lambda \circ j=f^{*} d \theta$$ for the map u = (w, f) : Σ ˙ → Q × S 1 $\dot{\Sigma} \rightarrow Q \times S^{1}$ for a λ-compatible almost complex structure J and a punctured Riemann surface ( Σ ˙ , j ) . $(\dot{\Sigma}, j).$ In particular, w is a contact instanton in the sense of [31], [32].We develop a scheme of treating the non-vanishing charge by introducing the notion of charge class in H 1 ( Σ ˙ , Z ) $H^{1}(\dot{\Sigma}, \mathbb{Z})$ and develop the geometric framework for the study of pseudoholomorphic curves, a correct choice of energy and the definition of moduli spaces towards the construction of a compactification of the moduli space on the lcs-fication of (Q, λ) (more generally on arbitrary locally conformal symplectic manifolds).

Deformation Theory of Log Pseudo-holomorphic Curves and Logarithmic Ruan–Tian Perturbations

Deformation Theory of Log Pseudo-holomorphic Curves and Logarithmic Ruan–Tian Perturbations

Time-periodic solutions of Hamiltonian PDEs using pseudoholomorphic curves

We extend the pseudoholomorphic curve methods from Floer theory to infinite-dimensional phase spaces and use our results to prove the existence of a forced time-periodic solution to a general Hamiltonian PDE with regularizing nonlinearity. In particular, when the nonlinearity is sufficiently regularizing, bounded and time-periodic, we prove an infinite-dimensional version of Gromov-Floer compactness by using ideas from the theory of Diophantine approximations to overcome the small divisor problem. Furthermore, in the case when the infinite-dimensional phase space is a product of a finite-dimensional closed symplectic manifold with linear symplectic Hilbert space, we prove a cup-length estimate for the number of periodic solutions.

Feral curves and minimal sets

We prove that for each Hamiltonian function $H \in \mathcal{C}^\infty(\mathbb{R}^4, \mathbb{R})$ defined on the standard symplectic $(\mathbb{R}^4,\omega_0)$ for which $M:= H^{-1}(0)$ is a non-empty compact regular energy level, the Hamiltonian flow on $M$ is not minimal. That is, we prove there exists a closed invariant subset of the Hamiltonian flow in $M$ that is neither $\emptyset$ nor all of $M$. This answers the four-dimensional case of a more than twenty year old question of Michel Herman, part of which can be regarded as a special case of the Gottschalk Conjecture. Our principal technique is the introduction and development of a new class of pseudoholomorphic curve in the "symplectization" $\mathbb{R}\times M$ of framed Hamiltonian manifolds $(M, \lambda,\omega)$. We call these feral curves because they are allowed to have infinite (so-called) Hofer energy, and hence may limit to invariant sets more general than the finite union of periodic orbits. Standard pseudoholomorphic curve analysis is inapplicable without energy bounds, and thus much of this paper is devoted to establishing properties of feral curves, such as area and curvature estimates, energy thresholds, compactness, asymptotic properties, etc.

Isometric deformations of pseudoholomorphic curves in the nearly Kähler sphere $$\mathbb {S}^6$$

Isometric deformations of pseudoholomorphic curves in the nearly Kähler sphere $$\mathbb {S}^6$$

Why bootstrapping for J-holomorphic curves fails in C^k

We present a simple example for the failure of the Calderón–Zygmund estimate for the overline{partial }-operator when the Sobolev (k, p)-norms are replaced by the C^k-norms. This example is discussed in the context of elliptic bootstrapping, Fredholm theory, and the regularity of J-holomorphic curves.

Invariant probability measures from pseudoholomorphic curves Ⅱ: Pseudoholomorphic curve constructions

In the previous work, we introduced a method for constructing invariant probability measures of a large class of non-singular volume-preserving flows on closed, oriented odd-dimensional smooth manifolds with pseudoholomorphic curve techniques from symplectic geometry. The technique requires existence of certain pseudoholomorphic curves satisfying some weak assumptions. In this work, we appeal to Gromov–Witten theory and Seiberg–Witten theory to construct large classes of examples where these pseudoholomorphic curves exist. Our argument uses neck stretching along with new analytical tools from Fish–Hofer's work on feral pseudoholomorphic curves.

Invariant probability measures from pseudoholomorphic curves Ⅰ

We introduce a method for constructing invariant probability measures of a large class of non-singular volume-preserving flows on closed, oriented odd-dimensional smooth manifolds using pseudoholomorphic curve techniques from symplectic geometry. These flows include any non-singular volume preserving flow in dimension three, and autonomous Hamiltonian flows on closed, regular energy levels in symplectic manifolds of any dimension. As an application, we use our method to prove the existence of obstructions to unique ergodicity for this class of flows, generalizing results of Taubes and Ginzburg–Niche.

Seiberg–Witten and Gromov invariants for self-dual harmonic 2–forms

Author(s): Gerig, Chris | Advisor(s): Hutchings, Michael | Abstract: For a closed oriented smooth 4-manifold X with $b^2_+(X)g0$, the Seiberg-Witten invariants are well-defined. Taubes' SW=Gr theorem asserts that if X carries a symplectic form then these invariants are equal to well-defined counts of pseudoholomorphic curves, Taubes' Gromov invariants. In the absence of a symplectic form there are still nontrivial closed self-dual 2-forms which vanish along a disjoint union of circles and are symplectic elsewhere. This thesis describes well-defined counts of pseudoholomorphic curves in the complement of the zero set of such 2-forms, and it is shown that they recover the Seiberg-Witten invariants (modulo 2). This is an extension of Taubes' SW=Gr theorem to non-symplectic 4-manifolds.The main results are the following. Given a suitable form w and tubular neighborhood N of its zero set, there are well-defined counts of pseudoholomorphic curves in a completion of the symplectic cobordism (X-N, w) which are asymptotic to certain Reeb orbits on the ends. They can be packaged together to form near-symplectic Gromov invariants as a map on the set of spin-c structures of X. They are furthermore equal to the Seiberg-Witten invariants with mod 2 coefficients, where w determines the chamber for defining the latter invariants when $b^2_+(X)=1$.In the final chapter, as a non sequitur, a new proof of the Fredholm index formula for punctured pseudoholomorphic curves is sketched. This generalizes Taubes' proof of the Riemann-Roch theorem for compact Riemann surfaces.

Pseudo-holomorphic dynamics in the restricted three-body problem

AbstractIn this paper, we identify the five dimensional analogue of the finite energy foliations introduced by Hofer–Wysocki–Zehnder for the study of three dimensional Reeb flows, and show that these exist for the spatial circular restricted three-body problem (SCR3BP) whenever the planar dynamics is convex. We introduce the notion of a fiberwise-recurrent point, which may be thought of as a symplectic version of the leafwise intersections introduced by Moser, and show that they exist in abundance for a perturbative regime in the SCR3BP. We then use this foliation to induce a Reeb flow on the standard 3-sphere, via the use of pseudo-holomorphic curves, to be understood as the best approximation of the given dynamics that preserves the foliation. We discuss examples, further geometric structures, and speculate on possible applications.

Pseudoholomorphic curves relative to a normal crossings symplectic divisor: compactification

Inspired by the log Gromov-Witten (or GW) theory of Gross-Siebert/Abramovich-Chen, we introduce a geometric notion of log J-holomorphic curve relative to a simple normal crossings symplectic divisor defined in [FMZ1]. Every such moduli space is characterized by a second homology class, genus, and contact data. For certain almost complex structures, we show that the moduli space of stable log J-holomorphic curves of any fixed type is compact and metrizable with respect to an enhancement of the Gromov topology. In the case of smooth symplectic divisors, our compactification is often smaller than the relative compactification and there is a projection map from the latter onto the former. The latter is constructed via expanded degenerations of the target. Our construction does not need any modification of (or any extra structure on) the target. Unlike the classical moduli spaces of stable maps, these log moduli spaces are often virtually singular. We describe an explicit toric model for the normal cone (i.e. the space of gluing parameters) to each stratum in terms of the defining combinatorial data of that stratum. In [FT2], we introduce a natural set up for studying the deformation theory of log (and relative) curves and obtain a logarithmic analog of the space of Ruan-Tian perturbations for these moduli spaces. In a forthcoming paper, we will prove a gluing theorem for smoothing log curves in the normal direction to each stratum. With some modifications to the theory of Kuranishi spaces, the latter will allow us to construct a virtual fundamental class for every such log moduli space and define relative GW invariants without any restriction.

The symplectic isotopy problem for rational cuspidal curves

We define a suitably tame class of singular symplectic curves in 4-manifolds, namely those whose singularities are modeled on complex curve singularities. We study the corresponding symplectic isotopy problem, with a focus on rational curves with irreducible singularities (rational cuspidal curves) in the complex projective plane. We prove that every such curve is isotopic to a complex curve in degrees up to five, and for curves with one singularity whose link is a torus knot. Classification results of symplectic isotopy classes rely on pseudo-holomorphic curves together with a symplectic version of birational geometry of log pairs and techniques from four-dimensional topology.

On the energy of quasiconformal mappings and pseudoholomorphic curves in complex projective spaces

We prove that the energy density of uniformly continuous, quasiconformal mappings, omitting two points in $\mathbb{C} \mathbb{P}^1$, is equal to zero. We also prove the sharpness of this result, constructing a family of uniformly continuous, quasiconformal mappings, whose areas grow asymptotically quadratically. Finally, we prove that the energy density of pseudoholomorphic Brody curves, omitting three “complex lines” in general position in $\mathbb{C} \mathbb{P}^2$, is equal to zero.

Construction of a linear K-system in Hamiltonian Floer theory

The notion of linear K-system was introduced by the present authors as an abstract model arising from the structure of compactified moduli spaces of solutions to Floer’s equation in the book (Fukaya et al. in Springer monographs in mathematics, Springer, Berlin, 2020). The purpose of the present article is to provide a geometric realization of the linear K-system associated with solutions to Floer’s equation in the Morse–Bott setting. Immediate consequences [when combined with the abstract theory from Fukaya et al. (Springer monographs in mathematics, Springer, Berlin, 2020)] are the construction of Floer cohomology for periodic Hamiltonian systems on general compact symplectic manifolds without any restriction, and the construction of an isomorphism over the Novikov ring between the Floer cohomology and the singular cohomology of the underlying symplectic manifold. The present article utilizes various analytical results on pseudoholomorphic curves established in our earlier papers and books. However, the paper itself is geometric in nature, and does not presume much prior knowledge of Kuranishi structures and their construction but assumes only the elementary part thereof, and results from Fukaya et al. (Surv Differ Geom 22:133–190, 2018) and Fukaya et al. (Exponential decay estimate and smoothness of the moduli space of pseudoholomorphic curves) on their construction, and the standard knowledge on Hamiltonian Floer theory. We explain the general procedure of the construction of a linear K-system by explaining in detail the inductive steps of ensuring the compatibility conditions for the system of Kuranishi structures leading to a linear K-system for the case of Hamiltonian Floer theory.

Symmetric periodic orbits and invariant disk-like global surfaces of section on the three-sphere

We study Reeb dynamics on the three-sphere equipped with a tight contact form and an anti-contact involution. We prove the existence of a symmetric periodic orbit and provide necessary and sufficient conditions for it to bound an invariant disk-like global surface of section. We also study the same questions under the presence of additional symmetry and obtain similar results in this case. The proofs make use of pseudoholomorphic curves in symplectizations. As applications, we study Birkhoff’s conjecture on disk-like global surfaces of section in the planar circular restricted three-body problem and the existence of symmetric closed Finsler geodesics on the two-sphere. We also present applications to some classical Hamiltonian systems.