4-dimensional symplectic contractions (Q2439352)

By definition, a local symplectic contraction (or resolution) is a birational projective morphism \(\pi: X \rightarrow Y\) whose source and target are a symplectic manifold and an affine (or Stein) normal variety, respectively. It is well-known that in dimension 2 all such contractions are minimal resolutions of Du Val singularities. In fact, basic properties of symplectic contractions in arbitrary dimension are described by many authors (see, e.g. [\textit{B. Fu}, Ann. Math. Blaise Pascal 13, No. 2, 209--236 (2006; Zbl 1116.14008)]). The paper under review is devoted to the study of 4-dimensional case. First, making use of their earlier results from [\textit{J. Wierzba} and \textit{J. A. Wiśniewski}, Duke Math. J. 120, No. 1, 65--95 (2003; Zbl 1036.14007)], the authors prove that the source \(X\) of such a symplectic contraction \(\pi\) is a Mori dream space in the sense of [\textit{Y. Hu} and \textit{S. Keel}, Mich. Math. J. 48, 331--348 (2000; Zbl 1077.14554)]. They also describe geometrical structure of these morphisms in standard terms of the theory (movable divisors of \(X\) over \(Y,\) subdivisions of the corresponding cones into chambers, nef cones, flops, etc.) Then families of rational curves in \(X/Y\) are investigated. In particular, it turns out that they are resolutions (not necessarily minimal) of Du Val singularities. Finally, some known examples in which \(Y = \mathbb C^4/G\) admits a symplectic resolution \(\pi: X \rightarrow Y,\) where \(G\) is a finite subgroup of \(\text{Sp}(\mathbb C^4)\) preserving a symplectic form, are described in full detail.