We use symplectic cohomology to study the non-uniqueness of symplectic
structures on the smooth manifolds underlying affine varieties. Starting with a
Lefschetz fibration on such a variety and a finite set of primes, the main new
tool is a method, which we call homologous recombination, for constructing a
Lefschetz fibration whose total space is smoothly equivalent to the original
variety, but for which symplectic cohomology with coefficients in the given set
of primes vanishes (there is also a simpler version that kills symplectic
cohomology completely).
We consider Lagrangian Floer cohomology for a pair of Lagrangian submanifolds
in a symplectic manifold M. Suppose that M carries a symplectic involution,
which preserves both submanifolds. Under various topological hypotheses, we
prove a localization theorem for Floer cohomology, which implies a Smith-type
inequality for the Floer cohomology groups in M and its fixed point set. Two
applications to symplectic Khovanov cohomology are included.
This (partially expository) paper discusses Lagrangian Floer cohomology in
the context of Lefschetz fibrations, with emphasis on the algebraic structures
encountered there. In addition to the well-known directed A_infinity algebras
which appear in this situation, one has additional information encoded in a
certain bimodule homomorphism. There are two approaches to constructing this
homomorphism: in terms of the (noncompact) Lefschetz thimbles in the total
space, or else in terms of vanishing cycle in the fibre.
We construct open symplectic manifolds which are convex at infinity
("Liouville manifolds") and which are diffeomorphic, but not symplectically
isomorphic, to cotangent bundles T^*S^{n+1}, for any n+1 \geq 3.
These manifolds are constructed as total spaces of Lefschetz fibrations,
where the fibre and all but one of the vanishing cycles are fixed. We show that
almost any choice of the last vanishing cycle leads to a nonstandard symplectic
structure (those choices which yield standard T^*S^{n+1} can be exactly
determined).
Katzarkov has proposed a generalization of Kontsevich's mirror symmetry
conjecture, covering some varieties of general type. We prove a version of this
conjecture in the simplest example, relating the Fukaya category of a genus two
curve to the category of Landau-Ginzburg branes on a certain singular rational
surface.