Symplectic embeddings of products (Q2412928)

Given a four-dimensional ellipsoid \(E(1,x)\), the infimum of \(R\) such that the four-dimensional ball \(B^4(R)\) symplectically contains \(E(1,x)\) is answered by the work of \textit{D. McDuff} and \textit{F. Schlenk} [Ann. Math. (2) 175, No. 3, 1191--1282 (2012; Zbl 1254.53111)]. The authors in the paper under review study the stabilized version of this problem, namely, whether \(E(1,x) \times \mathbb{C}^{N-2}\) can be symplectically embedded into \(B^4(R) \times \mathbb{C}^{N-2}\). Symplectic embedding problems beyond four dimensions are much harder than four dimensions because of the lack of powerful machinery. However, the authors successfully lift some of the embedding obstructions from dimension four to the higher dimensions by taking products with \(\mathbb{C}^{N-2}\). The rough idea goes as follows: if there is an symplectic embedding \( \phi:E(1,x) \times \mathbb{C}^{N-2} \to B^4(R) \times \mathbb{C}^{N-2}\), then the complement of \(\phi(E(1,x) \times B^{2N-4}(R'))\) is a symplectic cobordism \(M\). The embedding obstruction eventually comes from their proof of non-emptiness of certain moduli of \(J\)-holomorphic curves in \(\overline{M}\), the symplectic completion of \(M\). They prove that these moduli are cobordant to other moduli for which they know how to get a \(J\)-holomorphic curve from the embedded contact homology. They successfully address all the technicality of regularity and compactness of these moduli to show that when \(1 \leq x \leq \tau^4\), the infimum in the stabilized version is the same as the infimum McDuff and Schlenk obtained, where \(\tau:=\frac{1+\sqrt{5}}{2}\) is the golden ratio.