Explicit horizontal open books on some Seifert fibered 3-manifolds

We describe explicit horizontal open books on some Seifert fibered 3-manifolds. We show that the contact structures compatible with these horizontal open books are Stein fillable and horizontal as well. Moreover we draw surgery diagrams for some of these contact structures.     

Contact handle decompositions

We review Giroux's contact handles and contact handle attachments in dimension three and show that a bypass attachment consists of a pair of contact 1 and 2-handles. As an application we describe explicit contact handle decompositions of infinitely many pairwise non-isotopic overtwisted 3-spheres. We also give an alternative proof of the fact that every compact contact 3-manifold (closed or with convex boundary) admits a contact handle decomposition, which is a result originally due to Giroux.     

Contact topology and holomorphic invariants via elementary combinatorics

In recent times a great amount of progress has been achieved in symplectic and contact geometry, leading to the development of powerful invariants of 3-manifolds such as Heegaard Floer homology and embedded contact homology. These invariants are based on holomorphic curves and moduli spaces, but in the simplest cases, some of their structure reduces to some elementary combinatorics and algebra which may be of interest in its own right. In this note, which is essentially a light-hearted exposition of some previous work of the author, we give a brief introduction to some of the ideas of contact topology and holomorphic curves, discuss some of these elementary results, and indicate how they arise from holomorphic invariants.     

Homotopy decomposition of a group of symplectomorphisms of S×S

We continue the analysis started by Abreu, McDuff and Anjos of the topology of the group of symplectomorphisms of S²×S² when the ratio of the area of the two spheres lies in the interval (1,2]. We express the group, up to homotopy, as the pushout (or amalgam) of certain of its compact Lie subgroups. We use this to compute the homotopy type of the classifying space of the group of symplectomorphisms and the corresponding ring of characteristic classes for symplectic fibrations.     

Poisson identities of enveloping algebras

Let L be a restricted Lie algebra. The symmetric algebra S_p(L) of the restricted enveloping algebra u(L) has the structure of a Poisson algebra. We give necessary and sufficient conditions on L in order for the symmetric algebra S_p(L) to satisfy a multilinear Poisson identity. We also settle the same problem for the symmetric algebra S(L) of a Lie algebra L over an arbitrary field. The first author was partially supported by MIUR of Italy. The second author was partially supported by Grant RFBR-04-01- 00739. Received: 31 October 2005     

Serre-Taubes duality for pseudoholomorphic curves

According to Taubes, the Gromov invariants of a symplectic four-manifold X with b₊>1 satisfy the duality Gr(α)=±Gr(κ−α), where κ is Poincaré dual to the canonical class. Extending joint work with Simon Donaldson, we interpret this result in terms of Serre duality on the fibres of a Lefschetz pencil on X, by proving an analogous symmetry for invariants counting sections of associated bundles of symmetric products. Using similar methods, we give a new proof of an existence theorem for symplectic surfaces in four-manifolds with b₊=1 and b₁=0. This reproves another theorem due to Taubes: two symplectic homology projective planes with negative canonical class and equal volume are symplectomorphic.     

Polynomial identities for the Jordan algebra of a degenerate symmetric bilinear form

Let _Jn$J_n$ be the Jordan algebra of a degenerate symmetric bilinear form. In the first section we classify all possible G  -gradings on _Jn$J_n$ where G   is any group, while in the second part we restrict our attention to a degenerate symmetric bilinear form of rank n−1$n-1$, where n is the dimension of the vector space V   defining _Jn$J_n$. We prove that in this case the algebra _Jn$J_n$ is PI-equivalent to the Jordan algebra of a nondegenerate bilinear form.     

Symplectic Calabi–Yau 6-manifolds

In this article, we construct simply connected symplectic Calabi–Yau 6-manifolds by applying Gompf's symplectic fiber sum operation along T⁴${\mathbb{T}}^4$. Using our method, we also construct symplectic non-Kähler Calabi–Yau 6-manifolds with fundamental group Z$\mathbb{Z}$. This paper also produces the first examples of simply connected and non-simply connected symplectic Calabi–Yau 6-manifolds with fundamental groups _Zp×_Zq${\mathbb{Z}}_p\times {\mathbb{Z}}_q$, and Z×_Zq$\mathbb{Z}\times {\mathbb{Z}}_q$ for any p≥1$p\ge 1$ and q≥2$q\ge 2$via co-isotropic Luttinger surgery.     

On the signature of a Lefschetz fibration coming from an involution

In this article we show that the signature of a Lefschetz fibration coming from a special involution as a product of right-handed Dehn twists depends only on the number of genus on the involution axis. We investigate the geography of such Lefschetz fibrations and we identify it with a blow up of a ruled surface. We also get a geography of the Lefschetz fibration coming from a finite order element of mapping class group as a composition of two special involutions.     

Conformal nets associated with lattices and their orbifolds

In this paper, we study representations of conformal nets associated with positive definite even lattices and their orbifolds with respect to isometries of the lattices. Using previous general results on orbifolds, we give a list of all irreducible representations of the orbifolds, which generate a unitary modular tensor category.     

N-point locality for vertex operators: Normal ordered products,operator product expansions,twisted vertex algebras

In this paper we study fields satisfying N-point locality and their properties. We obtain residue formulae for N-point local fields in terms of derivatives of delta functions and Bell polynomials. We introduce the notion of the space of descendants of N-point local fields which includes normal ordered products and coefficients of operator product expansions. We show that examples of N  -point local fields include the vertex operators generating the boson–fermion correspondences of types B, C and D-A. We apply the normal ordered products of these vertex operators to the setting of the representation theory of the double-infinite rank Lie algebras _b∞$b_{\infty }$, _c∞$c_{\infty }$, _d∞$d_{\infty }$. Finally, we show that the field theory generated by N-point local fields and their descendants has a structure of a twisted vertex algebra.     

Higher Level Affine Crystals and Young Walls

Using combinatorics of Young walls, we give a new realization of arbitrary level irreducible highest weight crystals for quantum affine algebras of type , , , , , and . The irreducible highest weight crystals are realized as the affine crystals consisting of reduced proper Young walls. The notion of slices and splitting of blocks plays a crucial role in the construction of crystals.Presented by Peter Littelman.     

Locally finite polynomial endomorphisms

We study polynomial endomorphisms F of C^N which are locally finite in the following sense: the vector space generated by r°Fⁿ (n≥0) is finite dimensional for each r∈C[x₁,…,x_N]. We show that such endomorphisms exhibit similar features to linear endomorphisms: they satisfy the Jacobian Conjecture, have vanishing polynomials, admit suitably defined minimal and characteristic polynomials, and the invertible ones admit a Dunford decomposition into “semisimple” and “unipotent” constituents. We also explain a relationship with linear recurrent sequences and derivations. Finally, we give particular attention to the special cases where F is nilpotent and where N=2.     

Yangians: Their representations and characters

The finite-dimensional irreducible representations of the Yangian of sl₂ are parametrized by their highest weights, which are monic polynomials in one variable. In this paper, we give a formula for the character of such a representation which depends only on its highest weight, and is an analogue of the classical Weyl character formula.     

Computable Legendrian invariants

We establish tools to facilitate the computation and application of the Chekanov-Eliashberg differential graded algebra (DGA), a Legendrian-isotopy invariant of Legendrian knots and links in standard contact three space. More specifically, we reformulate the DGA in terms of front projections, and introduce the characteristic algebra, a new invariant derived from the DGA. We use our techniques to distinguish between several previously indistinguishable Legendrian knots and links.     

Braided algebras and their applications to Noncommutative Geometry

We introduce the notion of a braided algebra and study some examples of these. In particular, R-symmetric and R-skew-symmetric algebras of a linear space V equipped with a skew-invertible Hecke symmetry R are braided algebras. We prove the “mountain property” for the numerators and denominators of their Poincaré–Hilbert series (which are always rational functions).     

Howe duality and combinatorial character formula for orthosymplectic Lie superalgebras

We study the Howe dualities involving the reductive dual pairs (O(d),spo(2m|2n)) and (Sp(d),osp(2m|2n)) on the (super)symmetric tensor of . We obtain complete decompositions of this space with respect to their respective joint actions. We also use these dualities to derive a character formula for these irreducible representations of spo(2m|2n) and osp(2m|2n) that appear in these decompositions.     

The Lalonde-McDuff conjecture for nilmanifolds

We prove that any Hamiltonian bundle whose fiber is a nilmanifold c-splits.