Punctured holomorphic curves and Lagrangian embeddings (Q1745397)

The background of the paper under review are the Lagrangian submanifolds of nonpositive curvature. The authors provide symplectic disks of small area and Maslov class with boundary, by using punctured holomorphic curves. By considering a closed Lagrangian submanifold \(L\) of the complex projective space \(\mathbb{CP}^n\), such that \(L\) admits a metric of nonpositive curvature, and a closed unit disc \(D\) with the boundary \(\partial D,\) the authors prove in Theorem 1.1 that there exists a smooth map from \((D,\partial D)\) to \((\mathbb{CP}^n,L)\), such that \(f^*\omega\geq 0,\) whose symplectic area is estimated by the inequalities \[ 0<\int_Df^*\omega\leq \frac{\pi}{n+1}. \] Moreover, the authors fill a gap in the mathematical literature, by proving Audin's conjecture from 1988 on disks of Maslov index 2 in Lagrangian tori in linear symplectic space. For \(\mathbb{C}^2\) this conjecture was solved in [\textit{C. Viterbo}, Invent. Math. 100, No. 2, 301--320 (1990; Zbl 0727.58015)], [\textit{L. V. Polterovich}, Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 325, No. 1, 241--248 (1991; Zbl 0719.53016)]. The monotone case for arbitrary dimension was solved in [\textit{L. Buhovsky}, J. Topol. Anal. 2, No. 1, 57--75 (2010; Zbl 1235.53083); \textit{K. Fukaya} et al., Lagrangian intersection Floer theory. Anomaly and obstruction. II. Providence, RI: American Mathematical Society (AMS); Somerville, MA: International Press (2009; Zbl 1181.53003); \textit{M. Damian}, Comment. Math. Helv. 87, No. 2, 433--463 (2012; Zbl 1251.53049)]. The scheme of the proof given in the paper under review was suggested by Eliashberg in 2001, and it is based on the techniques from the previous work of the authors [J. Symplectic Geom. 5, No. 3, 281--356 (2007; Zbl 1149.53052)]. The main tool here is transversality for moduli spaces of punctured holomorphic curves with tangency conditions. The authors prove that for the case when the Lagrangian submanifold from Theorem 1.1 is monotone, the Maslov index of the map \(f\) is equal to 1 or 2. Another interesting result proved in this paper is that every exact Lagrangian submanifold \(L\subset\mathbb{CP}^n\) lifts to a Legendrian submanifold of \(S^{2n+1}\) which has at most one intersection with each fibre of the Hopf fibration. By using this fact, the authors give a quantitative version of Arnold's chord conjecture, showing that every closed Legendrian submanifold of nonpositive curvature in \(S\subset\mathbb{C}^n,\;n\geq 2,\) sufficiently \(C^1\)-close to the unit shere, has an honest Reeb chord, i.e., a Reeb chord which is not a closed Reeb orbit meeting the Legendrian submanifold just once. Concerning the Lagrangian submanifolds and symplectic balls, the authors show that every monotone Lagrangian torus in \(\mathbb{CP}^n\) must intersect every embedded ball of radius \(r>\sqrt{\frac{n}{n+1}}.\) Moreover, they prove that any closed manifold which carries a metric without contractible geodesics admits no exact Legendrian embedding into a minimally uniruled symplectic manifold. An estimate of the embedding capacity of a Riemannian manifold of nonpositive curvature into the symplectic manifold \(\mathbb{CP}^n\) with its standard symplectic form is given in Theorem 1.22, followed by some explicit computations in the appendix.