On lens spaces and their symplectic fillings (Q1882359)

The standard contact structure \(\xi _0\) on the three-sphere is the 2-dimensional distribution of complex lines tangent to \(S^3\subset \mathbb{C}^2\). The unit four-ball \(B^4\subset \mathbb{C}^2\) endowed with the restriction of the standard Kähler form on \(\mathbb{C}^2\) is a symplectic filling of \((S^3,\xi _0),\) i.e. a smooth, compact, connected four-manifold, say \(X\) with \(\partial X=S^3\) and a symplectic form \(\omega \) on \(X\) such that \(\omega | _{\xi _0}\not= 0,\) at every point of \(\partial X.\) The author generalizes a theorem of Eliashberg and McDuff classifying the symplectic fillings of the lens spaces \(L(p,1)\) up to diffeomorphisms. It is also shown that there exist infinitely many lens spaces \(L(p,q)\) with \(q\not=0\) such that the respective contact 3-manifold admits only one symplectic filling up to blowups and diffeomorphisms.