Symplectic mapping class groups of some Stein and rational surfaces (Q719905)

The paper is concerned with the topology of the group of symplectic diffeomorphisms of certain noncompact symplectic manifolds including the \(A_n\)-Milnor fibres and some rational surfaces. Let \(\text{Symp}_0(M)\) denote the connected component of the identity of the group of symplectic diffeomorphisms of a symplectic manifold~\(M\). The following results are obtained: \textbf{(1)} Let \(\mathbb{CP}^2_n\) denote the blow-up of the projective plane at \(n\) generic points. Then: (a) \(\text{Symp}_0(\mathbb{CP}^2_3)\) is weakly homotopy equivalent to the two dimensional torus \(T^2\); (b) \(\text{Symp}_0(\mathbb{CP}^2_4)\) is weakly contractible; (c) \(\text{Symp}_0(\mathbb{CP}^2_5)\) is weakly homotopy equivalent to \(\text{Diff}^+(S^2,5)\), the group of orientation preserving diffeomorphisms of the two dimensional sphere and fixing five points. \textbf{(2) } The group of compactly supported symplectic diffeomorphisms of the \(A_n\)-Milnor fibre equipped with the symplectic form induced from the standard symplectic form on the ambient \(\mathbb C^3\) is weakly homotopy equivalent to the group of its components. Moreover, the latter group injects into the braid group of \(n\) strands. \textbf{(3)} The group of compactly supported symplectic diffeomorphisms of the cotangent bundle of \(\mathbb{RP}^2\) is weakly homotopy equivalent to the infinite cyclic group. \textbf{(4)} The group of compactly supported symplectic diffeomorphisms of the product \(\mathbb{C}^* \times \mathbb {C}\) is weakly contractible. The core of the argument is the analysis of the action of a group of symplectic diffeomorphisms on the space of certain configurations of holomorphic curves. In this way the author obtains a fibration, or a sequence of fibrations, in which the group of interest is a fibre. The proofs start with showing that the space of the relevant configurations of curves is weakly contractible. Then there is a careful analysis of the sequence of fibrations culminating in the calculation of the homotopy groups of the relevant group of symplectic diffeomorphisms. This analysis relies on the understanding of the behaviour of holomorphic curves in the product of two complex projective lines, or in a blow up of the complex projective plane. This is a generalization of the ideas of Gromov.