Topics in symplectic Gromov–Witten theory
type: CreativeWork
description: The main focus of this thesis is on the Gromov--Witten theory of general symplectic manifolds. Mohan Swaminathan and I construct a framework to define a virtual fundamental class for the moduli space of stable maps to a general closed symplectic manifold. Our construction, inspired by [AMS21], works for all genera and leads to a more straightfoward definition of symplectic Gromov--Witten invariants as was previously available. We prove a formula for the Gromov--Witten invariants of a product of two symplectic manifolds, conjectured in [KM94]. I generalise the product formula to a formula for the Gromov--Witten invariants of a suitable fibre product of symplectic manifolds. Our invariants satisfy the Kontsevich-Manin axioms and are extended to descendent Gromov--Witten invariants. I show that our definition of Gromov--Witten invariants agrees with the classical Gromov--Witten invariants defined by [RT97] for semipositive symplectic manifolds. Given a Hamiltonian group action on the target manifold, I construct equivariant Gromov--Witten invariants and prove a virtual Atiyah--Bott-type localisation formula, providing a tool for computations. Together with Soham Chanda and Luya Wang, I construct infinitely many exotic Lagrangian tori in complex projective spaces of complex dimension higher than $2$. We lift tori in $\mathbb{P}$2, constructed by Vianna, and show that these lifts remain non-symplectomorphic, using an invariant derived from pseudoholomorphic disks. Noah Porcelli and I use Ljusternik-Schnirelmann theory, applied to moduli spaces of pseudoholomorphic curves, and homotopy theory to prove lower bounds on the number of intersection points of two (possibly non-transverse) Lagrangians in terms of the cuplength of the Lagrangian in generalised cohomology theories, improving previous lower bounds by Hofer.
abstract: The main focus of this thesis is on the Gromov--Witten theory of general symplectic manifolds. Mohan Swaminathan and I construct a framework to define a virtual fundamental class for the moduli space of stable maps to a general closed symplectic manifold. Our construction, inspired by [AMS21], works for all genera and leads to a more straightfoward definition of symplectic Gromov--Witten invariants as was previously available. We prove a formula for the Gromov--Witten invariants of a product of two symplectic manifolds, conjectured in [KM94]. I generalise the product formula to a formula for the Gromov--Witten invariants of a suitable fibre product of symplectic manifolds. Our invariants satisfy the Kontsevich-Manin axioms and are extended to descendent Gromov--Witten invariants. I show that our definition of Gromov--Witten invariants agrees with the classical Gromov--Witten invariants defined by [RT97] for semipositive symplectic manifolds. Given a Hamiltonian group action on the target manifold, I construct equivariant Gromov--Witten invariants and prove a virtual Atiyah--Bott-type localisation formula, providing a tool for computations. Together with Soham Chanda and Luya Wang, I construct infinitely many exotic Lagrangian tori in complex projective spaces of complex dimension higher than $2$. We lift tori in $\mathbb{P}$2, constructed by Vianna, and show that these lifts remain non-symplectomorphic, using an invariant derived from pseudoholomorphic disks. Noah Porcelli and I use Ljusternik-Schnirelmann theory, applied to moduli spaces of pseudoholomorphic curves, and homotopy theory to prove lower bounds on the number of intersection points of two (possibly non-transverse) Lagrangians in terms of the cuplength of the Lagrangian in generalised cohomology theories, improving previous lower bounds by Hofer.
author: Hirschi, Amanda
language: eng
keywords: Gromov-Witten theory, symplectic
license: https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/bitstreams/411fb4a6-b075-496b-817c-f3943347b9aa/download
license: https://www.rioxx.net/licenses/all-rights-reserved/
date published: 2023-08
date modified: 2026-07-22T22:23:56Z
provider: Cambridge University
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: University of Cambridge

PropertyValue
property ID: DOI
value: 10.17863/CAM.104156