Symplectic maps to P2, symplectic Lefschetz pencils and new symplectic invariants - a conference proposal

University Of California-Irvine, Irvine CA

Investigators

Abstract

DMS-0105389 Ronald J. Stern This award provides partial support for graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, junior faculty, and principal speakers to attend the "Symplectic Geometry and Lefschetz pencils" conference to be held April 12-16, 2001 on the campus of the University of California at Irvine. This conference will bring together researchers to discuss and present new advances in the study of symplectic Lefschetz theory and symplectic 4-manifolds . The discovery of Donaldson that every symplectic 4-manifold supports a symplectic Lefschetz pencil and the discovery of Auroux and Katzarkov that every symplectic 4-manifold is a finite ramified covering of the complex projective plane presents the possibility to classify four-dimensional symplectic manifolds using mapping class group data and methods from algebraic geometry. This conference will provide an opportunity to summarize, centralize and disseminate results in this new direction of mathematical research and will provide the opportunity for new PHD's and graduate students in algebraic and differential geometry/topology and theoretical physics to learn from the leaders of this emerging field. Specific information will be available at http://www.math.uci.edu/sub6.html