Exact Lagrangians in \(A_n\)-surface singularities (Q2249459)

In symplectic topology, a very fundamental problem is to classify exact Lagrangian submanifolds in a given exact symplectic manifold. In particular, an open conjecture of Arnold asserts that every closed exact Lagrangian submanifold in the cotangent bundle of a closed manifold is Hamiltonian isotopic to the zero section. In the paper under review the author considers the \(A_{n-1}\)-surface singularity \(W\) defined by \[ W=\{(x,y,z):x^{2}+y^{2}+z^{n}=1\}\subset(\mathbb{C}^{3},\omega_{std}), \] where \(\omega_{std}\) is the standard symplectic form on \(\mathbb{C}^{3}\). \(W\) is a singular symplectic surface, which can be identified symplectically with the plumbing of \(n-1\) copies of the cotangent bundle \(T^{*}S^{2}\). By definition, there exist some special 2-dimensional submanifolds in \(W\), i.e., the zero sections of these plumbed copies, which are called \textit{standard spheres}. The primary objects of this paper are the following: (1) Considering the classification of Lagrangian spheres in \(W\), the author shows that they are unique up to Hamiltonian isotopy and Lagrangian Dehn twists along the standard spheres (Theorem 1); (2) Let \(\mathrm{Symp}_{c}(W)\) be the compactly supported symplectomorphism group of \(W\), then every element in \(\mathrm{Symp}_{c}(W)\) is Hamiltonian isotopic to a composition of Dehn twists along the standard spheres, and furthermore, \(\pi_{0}(\mathrm{Symp}_{c}(W))\) is isomorphic to the full braid group \(Br_{n}\) with \(n\)-strands {Theorem 1.2}. The main tool constructed in this paper is the so-called \textit{ball-swapping technique}. In particular, the author gives a full and accurate remark on this technique at the end of the paper. This is an interesting and meaningful work; moreover, the ball-swapping technique used in this paper may be a useful tool in the study of other problems in symplectic topology.