The ghost stairs stabilize to sharp symplectic embedding obstructions

DOI10.1112/TOPO.12055zbMATH Open1394.53080arXiv1702.03607OpenAlexW3121438198WikidataQ130002710 ScholiaQ130002710MaRDI QIDQ4576147FDOQ4576147

Authors: Daniel Cristofaro-Gardiner, Dusa McDuff, R. Hind 

Publication date: 12 July 2018

Published in: Journal of Topology (Search for Journal in Brave)

Abstract: In determining when a four-dimensional ellipsoid can be symplectically embedded into a ball, McDuff and Schlenk found an infinite sequence of "ghost" obstructions that generate an infinite "ghost staircase" determined by the even index Fibonacci numbers. The ghost obstructions are not visible for the four-dimensional embedding problem because strictly stronger obstructions also exist. We show that in contrast, the embedding constraints associated to the ghost obstructions are sharp for the stabilized problem; moreover, the corresponding optimal embeddings are given by symplectic folding. The proof introduces several ideas of independent interest, namely: (i) an improved version of the index inequality familiar from the theory of embedded contact homology (ECH), (ii) new applications of relative intersection theory in the context of neck stretching analysis, (iii) a new approach to estimating the ECH grading of multiply covered elliptic orbits in terms of areas and continued fractions, and (iv) a new technique for understanding the ECH of ellipsoids by constructing explicit bijections between certain sets of lattice points.

Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/1702.03607

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zbMATH Keywords

embedded contact homologysymplectic embeddings

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Symplectic manifolds (general theory) (53D05) Symplectic and contact topology in high or arbitrary dimension (57R17)

Cited In (14)

• Higher symplectic capacities and the stabilized embedding problem for integral ellipsoids
• Irreversibility from staircases in symplectic embeddings
• Sub-leading asymptotics of ECH capacities
• Essential tori in spaces of symplectic embeddings
• Staircase patterns in Hirzebruch surfaces
• A remark on the stabilized symplectic embedding problem for ellipsoids
• Infinite staircases in the symplectic embedding problem for four-dimensional ellipsoids into polydisks
• Gromov width of symplectic toric manifolds associated with graphs
• Higher symplectic capacities and the stabilized embedding problem for integral ellipsoids
• Counting curves with local tangency constraints
• Infinite staircases for Hirzebruch surfaces
• Correction to: ``New obstructions to symplectic embeddings
• Ehrhart functions and symplectic embeddings of ellipsoids
• Special eccentricities of rational four-dimensional ellipsoids

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