Examples of symplectic non-leaves (Q6986807)

Sondow originally proposed the realization problem of Riemannian manifolds as leaves of foliations on compact manifolds. In this paper, the authors study its symplectic analogue: when is a noncompact symplectic manifold symplectomorphic to a leaf of a symplectic foliation, namely, a foliation with leafwise symplectic structure?\N\NThey introduce the notion of strong geometric boundedness as a necessary condition for a symplectic manifold to be realized as a leaf of a symplectic foliation on a compact manifold: A symplectic manifold is said to be \textit{strongly geometrically bounded} (SGB) if it admits a compatible almost complex structure for which the associated Riemannian metric has sectional curvature bounded from above and injectivity radius bounded from below.\N\NThe authors first prove that any symplectic manifold admitting an exhaustion by compact subsets with contact-type boundary can be deformed by a homotopy to a strongly geometrically bounded one. Many symplectic manifolds are not SGB, such as open balls with standard symplectic structure or symplectizations of contact manifolds.\N\NThe first main result gives the first examples of SGB symplectic manifolds which are not diffeomorphic to any symplectic leaves: If an open \(2n\)-manifold \(W\) has finitely many ends of the form \(N_i \times [0,\infty)\) with \(N_i\) having trivial \(\pi_1\) and \(H^2\), and if \(W\) has either more than one end or nontrivial \(\pi_1\) or \(H^2\) in its compact part, then \(W\) cannot be diffeomorphic to a symplectic leaf. As a corollary, the blow-up of a Weinstein manifold of finite type without \(1\)- and \(2\)-handles, e.g. the blow-up of \(\mathbb{R}^{2n}\), is not realizable as a symplectic leaf.\N\NThe second main result gives the first examples of SGB symplectic manifolds that are not realizable, yet diffeomorphic to symplectic leaves: If a symplectic manifold \((W,\omega)\) admits an exhaustion by compact subsets with contact-type boundary, then after performing infinitely many symplectic blow-ups of different sizes, the resulting manifold is SGB but not realizable as a symplectic leaf. For instance, \(\mathbb{R}^{2n}\) blown up infinitely many times with varying sizes is not realizable, while the same manifold blown up with equal sizes is realizable.