On the unfolding of folded symplectic structures (Q1574771)

A folded symplectic structure is a closed \(2\)-form which is nondegenerate except on a hypersurface (called the folding hypersurface) whose restriction to that hypersurface has the maximal rank. The authors prove that if the null-foliation of the folded symplectic form on the folding hypersurface is fibrating, then the folded symplectic structure on a compact manifold can be ``unfolded''. It means that the compact manifold equipped with this folded symplectic structure can be broken apart into compact symplectic manifolds. It is also shown that a folded symplectic structure induces a spin-c structure which is canonical up to homotopy. The authors describe how the index of the spin-c operator behaves with respect to unfolding. The article also contains basic facts about folded symplectic forms and some examples of these forms on even-dimensional manifolds.