Dusa McDuff - Böcker

Over the last number of years powerful new methods in analysis and topology have led to the development of the modern global theory of symplectic topology, including several striking and important results. The first edition of Introduction to Symplectic Topology was published in 1995. The book was the first comprehensive introduction to the subject and became a key text in the area. A significantly revised second edition was published in 1998 introducing new sections and updates on the fast-developing area. This new third edition includes updates and new material to bring the book right up-to-date.

Over the last number of years powerful new methods in analysis and topology have led to the development of the modern global theory of symplectic topology, including several striking and important results. The first edition of Introduction to Symplectic Topology was published in 1995. The book was the first comprehensive introduction to the subject and became a key text in the area. A significantly revised second edition was published in 1998 introducing new sections and updates on the fast-developing area. This new third edition includes updates and new material to bring the book right up-to-date.

The method of using the moduli space of pseudo-holomorphic curves on a symplectic manifold was introduced by Mikhail Gromov in 1985. From the appearance of Gromov's original paper until today this approach has been the most important tool in global symplectic geometry. To produce numerical invariants of these manifolds using this method requires constructing a fundamental cycle associated with moduli spaces.This volume brings together three approaches to constructing the ``virtual'' fundamental cycle for the moduli space of pseudo-holomorphic curves. All approaches are based on the idea of local Kuranishi charts for the moduli space. Workers in the field will get a comprehensive understanding of the details of these constructions and the assumptions under which they can be made. These techniques and results will be essential in further applications of this approach to producing invariants of symplectic manifolds.This book is published in cooperation with Simons Center for Geometry and Physics.

The theory of $J$-holomorphic curves has been of great importance since its introduction by Gromov in 1985. In mathematics, its applications include many key results in symplectic topology. It was also one of the main inspirations for the creation of Floer homology. In mathematical physics, it provides a natural context in which to define Gromov-Witten invariants and quantum cohomology, two important ingredients of the mirror symmetry conjecture. The main goal of this book is to establish the fundamental theorems of the subject in full and rigorous detail. In particular, the book contains complete proofs of Gromov's compactness theorem for spheres, of the gluing theorem for spheres, and of the associativity of quantum multiplication in the semipositive case. The book can also serve as an introduction to current work in symplectic topology: there are two long chapters on applications, one concentrating on classical results in symplectic topology and the other concerned with quantum cohomology. The last chapter sketches some recent developments in Floer theory. The five appendices of the book provide necessary background related to the classical theory of linear elliptic operators, Fredholm theory, Sobolev spaces, as well as a discussion of the moduli space of genus zero stable curves and a proof of the positivity of intersections of $J$-holomorphic curves in four-dimensional manifolds. The second edition clarifies various arguments, corrects several mistakes in the first edition, includes some additional results in Chapter 10 and Appendices C and D, and updates the references to recent developments.

Aside from teaching readers about developing research areas, this book will inspire researchers to ask further questions to continue to advance the field. The volume contains both original results and survey articles, presenting the results of collaborative research on a wide range of topics.