We prove a contact non-squeezing phenomenon on homotopy spheres that are fillable by Liouville domains with large symplectic homology: there exists a smoothly embedded ball in such a sphere that cannot be made arbitrarily small by a contact isotopy. These homotopy spheres include examples that are diffeomorphic to standard spheres and whose contact structures are homotopic to standard contact structures. As the main tool, we construct a new version of symplectic homology, called selective symplectic homology, that is associated to a Liouville domain and an open subset of its boundary. The selective symplectic homology is obtained as the direct limit of Floer homology groups for Hamiltonians whose slopes tend to $+\infty$ on the open subset but remain close to $0$ and positive on the rest of the boundary.

For subsets in the standard symplectic space $(\mathbb {R}^{2n},\omega _0)$ whose closures are intersecting with coisotropic subspace $\mathbb {R}^{n,k}$ we construct relative versions of the Ekeland–Hofer capacities of the subsets with respect to $\mathbb {R}^{n,k}$, establish representation formulas for such capacities of bounded convex domains intersecting with $\mathbb {R}^{n,k}$. We also prove a product formula and a fact that the value of this capacity on a hypersurface $\mathcal {S}$ of restricted contact type containing the origin is equal to the action of a generalized leafwise chord on $\mathcal {S}$.

We study generators of the fundamental group of the group of symplectomorphisms $\operatorname {\mathrm{Symp}} (\mathbb C\mathbb P^2\#\,5\overline { \mathbb C\mathbb P}\,\!^2, \omega )$ for some particular symplectic forms. It was observed by Kȩdra (2009, Archivum Mathematicum 45) that there are many symplectic 4-manifolds $(M, \omega )$, where M is neither rational nor ruled, that admit no circle action and $\pi _1 (\operatorname {\mathrm {Ham}} (M,\omega ))$ is nontrivial. On the other hand, it follows from Abreu and McDuff (2000, Journal of the American Mathematical Society 13, 971–1009), Anjos and Eden (2019, Michigan Mathematical Journal 68, 71–126), Anjos and Pinsonnault (2013, Mathematische Zeitschrift 275, 245–292), and Pinsonnault (2008, Compositio Mathematica 144, 787–810) that the fundamental group of the group $ \operatorname {\mathrm{Symp}}_h(\mathbb C\mathbb P^2\#\,k\overline { \mathbb C\mathbb P}\,\!^2,\omega )$, of symplectomorphisms that act trivially on homology, with $k \leq 4$, is generated by circle actions on the manifold. We show that, for some particular symplectic forms $\omega $, the set of all Hamiltonian circle actions generates a proper subgroup in $\pi _1(\operatorname {\mathrm{Symp}}_{h}(\mathbb C\mathbb P^2\#\,5\overline { \mathbb C\mathbb P}\,\!^2,\omega )).$ Our work depends on Delzant classification of toric symplectic manifolds, Karshon’s classification of Hamiltonian $S^1$-spaces, and the computation of Seidel elements of some circle actions.

We use tropical curves and toric degeneration techniques to construct closed embedded Lagrangian rational homology spheres in a lot of Calabi-Yau threefolds. The homology spheres are mirror dual to the holomorphic curves contributing to the Gromov-Witten (GW) invariants. In view of Joyce’s conjecture, these Lagrangians are expected to have special Lagrangian representatives and hence solve a special Lagrangian enumerative problem in Calabi-Yau threefolds.

We apply this construction to the tropical curves obtained from the 2,875 lines on the quintic Calabi-Yau threefold. Each admissible tropical curve gives a Lagrangian rational homology sphere in the corresponding mirror quintic threefold and the Joyce’s weight of each of these Lagrangians equals the multiplicity of the corresponding tropical curve.

As applications, we show that disjoint curves give pairwise homologous but non-Hamiltonian isotopic Lagrangians and we check in an example that $>300$ mutually disjoint curves (and hence Lagrangians) arise. Dehn twists along these Lagrangians generate an abelian subgroup of the symplectic mapping class group with that rank.

We introduce a generalization of the Lisca–Ozsváth–Stipsicz–Szabó Legendrian invariant ${\mathfrak L}$ to links in every rational homology sphere, using the collapsed version of link Floer homology. We represent a Legendrian link L in a contact 3-manifold ${(M,\xi)}$ with a diagram D, given by an open book decomposition of ${(M,\xi)}$ adapted to L, and we construct a chain complex ${cCFL^-(D)}$ with a special cycle in it denoted by ${\mathfrak L(D)}$ . Then, given two diagrams ${D_1}$ and ${D_2}$ which represent Legendrian isotopic links, we prove that there is a map between the corresponding chain complexes that induces an isomorphism in homology and sends ${\mathfrak L(D_1)}$ into ${\mathfrak L(D_2)}$ . Moreover, a connected sum formula is also proved and we use it to give some applications about non-loose Legendrian links; that are links such that the restriction of ${\xi}$ on their complement is tight.

We prove some open book embedding results in the contact category with a constructive approach. As a consequence, we give an alternative proof of a theorem of Etnyre and Lekili that produces a large class of contact 3-manifolds admitting contact open book embeddings in the standard contact 5-sphere. We also show that all the Ustilovsky $(4m+1)$-spheres contact open book embed in the standard contact $(4m+3)$-sphere.

The fundamental group π of a Kodaira fibration is, by definition, the extension of a surface group $\Pi_b$ by another surface group $\Pi _g$, i.e.

$$1 \rightarrow \Pi_g \rightarrow \pi \rightarrow \Pi_b \rightarrow 1.$$

$m \colon \Pi_b \to \Gamma_g$

$\Pi_g$

$g \leq 1+ 6s$

We make some elementary observations concerning subcritically Stein fillable contact structures on 5-manifolds. Specifically, we determine the diffeomorphism type of such contact manifolds in the case where the fundamental group is finite cyclic, and we show that on the 5-sphere, the standard contact structure is the unique subcritically fillable one. More generally, it is shown that subcritically fillable contact structures on simply connected 5-manifolds are determined by their underlying almost contact structure. Along the way, we discuss the homotopy classification of almost contact structures.

We give a method for constructing a Legendrian representative of a knot in $S^{3}$ which realizes its maximal Thurston–Bennequin number under a certain condition. The method utilizes Stein handle decompositions of $D^{4}$ , and the resulting Legendrian representative is often very complicated (relative to the complexity of the topological knot type). As an application, we construct infinitely many knots in $S^{3}$ each of which yields a reducible 3-manifold by a Legendrian surgery in the standard tight contact structure. This disproves a conjecture of Lidman and Sivek.

We prove packing stability for rational symplectic manifolds. This will rely on a general symplectic embedding result for ellipsoids which assumes only that there is no volume obstruction and that the domain is sufficiently thin relative to the target. We also obtain easily computable bounds for the Embedded Contact Homology capacities which are sufficient to imply the existence of some symplectic volume filling embeddings in dimension 4.

We study symplectic deformation types of minimal symplectic fillings of links of quotient surface singularities. In particular, there are only finitely many symplectic deformation types for each quotient surface singularity.

Let Mμ0 denote S2×S2 endowed with a split symplectic form normalized so that μ≥1 and σ(S2)=1. Given a symplectic embedding of the standard ball of capacity c∈(0,1) into Mμ0, consider the corresponding symplectic blow-up . In this paper, we study the homotopy type of the symplectomorphism group and that of the space of unparametrized symplectic embeddings of Bc into Mμ0. Writing ℓ for the largest integer strictly smaller than μ, and λ∈(0,1] for the difference μ−ℓ, we show that the symplectomorphism group of a blow-up of ‘small’ capacity c<λ is homotopically equivalent to the stabilizer of a point in Symp(Mμ0), while that of a blow-up of ‘large’ capacity c≥λ is homotopically equivalent to the stabilizer of a point in the symplectomorphism group of a non-trivial bundle obtained by blowing down . It follows that, for c<λ, the space is homotopy equivalent to S2 ×S2, while, for c≥λ, it is not homotopy equivalent to any finite CW-complex. A similar result holds for symplectic ruled manifolds diffeomorphic to . By contrast, we show that the embedding spaces and , if non-empty, are always homotopy equivalent to the spaces of ordered configurations and . Our method relies on the theory of pseudo-holomorphic curves in 4 -manifolds, on the computation of Gromov invariants in rational 4 -manifolds, and on the inflation technique of Lalonde and McDuff.

Based on the classification of contact structures on the 3-torus and classical contact geometric methods, it is shown that there exist essential loops in the space of contact structures on torus bundles over the circle.

Simply connected closed symplectic 4-manifolds with $b_{2}^+ \,{=}\,1$ and $K^2 \,{=}\,0$ are investigated. As a result, it is confirmed that most of homotopy elliptic surfaces $\{E(1)_{K} \,{|}\,K\, \mathrm{is\, a\, fibred\, knot}$ in $S^3\}$ constructed by R. Fintushel and R. Stern in Invent. Math. 134 (1998) 363–400 are simply connected closed minimal symplectic 4-manifolds that do not admit a complex structure.This work was supported by grant No. R14-2002-007-01002-0 from KOSEF.

We establish the correspondence between Euclidean differential geometry of submanifolds in $\mathbb{R}^n$ and projective differential geometry of submanifolds in $\mathbb{R}^{n +1 }$ under stereographic projection to quadrics of revolution (and to a more general class of quadrics called quasi-revolution quadrics). V. D. Sedykh found a relation between Lagrangian and Legendrian singularities by stereographic projection to a sphere in Euclidean space. We generalise Sedykh's results in several directions, for instance:

(1) such a relation holds for any stereographic projection of a hyperplane to a quasi-revolution quadric in $\mathbb{R}^n \times \mathbb{R}$, where here $\mathbb{R}^n$ denotes Euclidean space;

(2) when the quadric is a paraboloid the relation between Lagrangian and Legendrian singularities is the most natural one, and the calculations, formulas and proofs are simpler;

(3) using the classical theory of poles, polars and polar duality, we construct the natural isomorphism between the front of the Lagrange submanifold of the normal map (considered as a subvariety in $J^0(\mathbb{R}^n) = \mathbb{R}^n \times \mathbb{R}$) and the front of the Legendre submanifold of the tangential map (considered as a subvariety in the space $(\mathbb{R}^{n + 1})^\vee$ of affine n-dimensional subspaces in $\mathbb{R}^{n + 1}$).

As a consequence of our results we obtain a formula to calculate the vertices of smooth curves in $\mathbb{R}^n$. Our results may be applied to calculate and study umbilic points of surfaces in $\mathbb{R}^3$, or more generally to study the contact of submanifolds in Euclidean space $\mathbb{R}^n$ with k-spheres, for $k = 1,\ldots,n - 1$, in terms of the contact of submanifolds in $\mathbb{R}^{n + 1}$ with $(k + 1)$-planes.

We remark that it is possible to obtain additional geometric information when stereographic projection is replaced by an inversion.

Let $X$ be a closed, symplectic 4-manifold. Suppose that there is either a symplectic or an anti-symplectic involution $\sigma : X\,{\to}\, X$ with a 2-dimensional compact, oriented submanifold $\Sigma$ as a fixed point set.

If $\sigma$ is a symplectic involution then the quotient $X/\sigma$ with $b_2^+(X/\sigma)\,{\ge}\, 1$ is a symplectic 4-manifold.

If $\sigma$ is an anti-symplectic involution and $\Sigma$ has genus greater than 1 representing non-trivial homology class, we prove a vanishing theorem on Seiberg-Witten invariants of the quotient $X/\sigma$ with $b_2^+(X/\sigma)\,{ >}\,1.$

If $\Sigma$ is a torus with self-intersection number 0, we get a relation between the Seiberg-Witten invariants on $X$ and those of $X/\sigma$ with $b_2^+(X), b_2^+(X/\sigma)\,{ >}\,2$ which was obtained in [21] when the genus $g(\Sigma)\,{ >}\,1$ and $\Sigma\cdot\Sigma\,{=}\,0$.This work was supported by a Korea Research Foundation Grant (No KRF-2002-072-C00010).