In mathematics, the Gromov invariant of Clifford Taubes counts embedded (possibly disconnected) pseudoholomorphic curves in a symplectic 4-manifold, where the curves are holomorphic with respect to an auxiliary compatible almost complex structure. (Multiple covers of 2-tori with self-intersection 0 are also counted.)
Mathematics includes the study of such topics as quantity, structure (algebra), space (geometry), and change. It has no generally accepted definition.
Clifford Henry Taubes is the William Petschek Professor of Mathematics at Harvard University and works in gauge field theory, differential geometry, and low-dimensional topology. His brother, Gary Taubes, is a science writer.
In mathematics, specifically in topology and geometry, a pseudoholomorphic curve is a smooth map from a Riemann surface into an almost complex manifold that satisfies the Cauchy–Riemann equation. Introduced in 1985 by Mikhail Gromov, pseudoholomorphic curves have since revolutionized the study of symplectic manifolds. In particular, they lead to the Gromov–Witten invariants and Floer homology, and play a prominent role in string theory.
Taubes proved the information contained in this invariant is equivalent to invariants derived from the Seiberg–Witten equations in a series of four long papers. Much of the analytical complexity connected to this invariant comes from properly counting multiply covered pseudoholomorphic curves so that the result is invariant of the choice of almost complex structure. The crux is a topologically defined index for pseudoholomorphic curves which controls embeddedness and bounds the Fredholm index.
Embedded contact homology is an extension due to Michael Hutchings of this work to noncompact four-manifolds of the form , where Y is a compact contact 3-manifold. ECH is a symplectic field theory-like invariant; namely, it is the homology of a chain complex generated by certain combinations of Reeb orbits of a contact form on Y, and whose differential counts certain embedded pseudoholomorphic curves and multiply covered pseudoholomorphic cylinders with "ECH index" 1 in . The ECH index is a version of Taubes's index for the cylindrical case, and again, the curves are pseudoholomorphic with respect to a suitable almost complex structure. The result is a topological invariant of Y, which Taubes proved is isomorphic to monopole Floer homology, a version of Seiberg–Witten homology for Y.
Michael Lounsbery Hutchings is an American mathematician, a professor of mathematics at the University of California, Berkeley. He is known for proving the double bubble conjecture on the shape of two-chambered soap bubbles, and for his work on circle-valued Morse theory and on embedded contact homology, which he defined.
In mathematics, a 3-manifold is a space that locally looks like Euclidean 3-dimensional space. A 3-manifold can be thought of as a possible shape of the universe. Just as a sphere looks like a plane to a small enough observer, all 3-manifolds look like our universe does to a small enough observer. This is made more precise in the definition below.
In mathematics, Floer homology is a tool for studying symplectic geometry and low-dimensional topology. Floer homology is a novel invariant that arises as an infinite-dimensional analogue of finite-dimensional Morse homology. Andreas Floer introduced the first version of Floer homology, now called Lagrangian Floer homology, in his proof of the Arnold conjecture in symplectic geometry. Floer also developed a closely related theory for Lagrangian submanifolds of a symplectic manifold. A third construction, also due to Floer, associates homology groups to closed three-dimensional manifolds using the Yang–Mills functional. These constructions and their descendants play a fundamental role in current investigations into the topology of symplectic and contact manifolds as well as (smooth) three- and four-dimensional manifolds.
