Skip to main content

The SFT Compactness Results

  • Chapter
  • 1247 Accesses

Abstract

We start this chapter with the simplest SFT compactness result generalizing Gromov compactness. We consider punctured holomorphic curves without boundary in the symplectization of a contact manifold. We define holomorphic buildings and prove the corresponding compactness result with great attention to detail. We then introduce holomorphic buildings for curves with boundary and provide a compactness result. The cases of manifolds with cylindrical ends and symplectic manifolds obtained by splitting along a contact type hypersurface conclude the presentation.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

Buying options

Chapter
USD   29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD   89.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD   119.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD   119.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Learn about institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    Recall that by definition each \((\tilde{u}_{m},j_{m},\mathbf {S}_{m})\) is itself a sequence \((\tilde{u}^{n}_{m},j^{n}_{m},\mathbf {S}^{n}_{m})_{1\le n\le N_{m}}\), N m N of holomorphic buildings of height 1.

  2. 2.

    The circles and arcs used to compactify the surfaces are removed here.

  3. 3.

    In the paper [12] this is case (i) in Fig. 5 and the second case in Fig. 3.4.

  4. 4.

    This is case (ii) in the paper [12].

  5. 5.

    This is not a real assumption since it can be achieved by merely passing to a suitable subsequence due to the uniform bound on the energy and the nondegeneracy of the contact form. In the paper [12] the authors also consider the Morse–Bott case for curves without boundary. Then one has to assume that all the curves \(\tilde {u}_{n}\) are asymptotic at the corresponding punctures to periodic orbits lying in the same connected component in the space of periodic orbits.

  6. 6.

    Here \(D_{r}=\{z\in{\mathbb{C}}:|z|<r\}\) and \(D^{+}_{r}=\{z\in D_{r}\,|\operatorname{Im}(z)\ge0\}\).

  7. 7.

    The points z ±=(s ±,t ±)∈∂B r (z n ) with \(t_{\pm}=t_{n}\pm\frac{r s_{n}}{|z_{n}|}\) and \(|z_{\pm}|=\sqrt{|z_{n}|^{2}+r^{2}}\) are characterized by the condition that the lines \(\{\tau z_{\pm}\,|\,\tau\in{\mathbb{R}}\}\) are tangent to the boundary of B r (z n ).

  8. 8.

    Recall from the definition of convergence of surfaces that there are diffeomorphisms φ n :SS n and disjoint embedded loops \(\{\varGamma_{j}\}\subset\dot{S}\) such that φ n (Γ j ) are geodesics in S n . The lengths of these geodesics tend to zero as n→∞. It follows from the proof of the collar lemma that the circles Γ j are actually degenerate boundary components for the limit metric \(h=\lim_{n\rightarrow \infty}\varphi_{n}^{\ast}h_{n}\), and these are isometric to standard cusps. This also explains why removal of singularities theorem and Proposition 2.47 can be applied near a node.

  9. 9.

    Note that a simple calculation yields

    $$\varepsilon\ge\min\bigl\{ \rho_n(z)\,|\,z\in{\mathcal{C}}( \gamma_n)\bigr\} =\frac{\ell_n}{2}. $$
  10. 10.

    Also note that S(γ ,γ +,[F])≥0 if the homotopy class [F] has a pseudoholomorphic representative.

  11. 11.

    Recall that by definition each \((\tilde{u}_{m},j_{m},\mathbf {S}_{m})\) is itself a sequence \((\tilde{u}^{n}_{m},j^{n}_{m},\mathbf {S}^{n}_{m})_{1\le n\le N_{m}}\), N m N of holomorphic buildings of height 1.

  12. 12.

    The circles and arcs used to compactify the surfaces are removed here.

  13. 13.

    Note that the ends may be disconnected.

  14. 14.

    This is not a real assumption since it can be achieved by merely passing to a suitable subsequence due to the uniform bound on the energy and the nondegeneracy of the contact form. In the paper [12] the authors also consider the Morse–Bott case for curves without boundary. Then one has to assume that all the curves \(\tilde {u}_{n}\) are asymptotic at the corresponding punctures to periodic orbits lying in the same connected component in the space of periodic orbits.

References

  1. F. Bourgeois, Y. Eliashberg, H. Hofer, K. Wysocki, E. Zehnder, Compactness results in symplectic field theory. Geom. Topol. 7, 799–888 (2003)

    Article  MATH  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2014 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Abbas, C. (2014). The SFT Compactness Results. In: An Introduction to Compactness Results in Symplectic Field Theory. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-31543-5_3

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics