Folding Symplectic Manifolds
Symplectic manifolds are manifolds equipped with a
closed non-degenerate 2-form. Cut-and-paste constructions
on symplectic manifolds usually produce closed degenerate
2-forms. Fortunately, often the degeneracies introduced
by surgery are only mild, so that symplectic techniques are
still applicable to these more general (non-symplectic) manifolds.
Folding-type degeneracies occur in important examples, and
not just by surgery from symplectic manifolds.
Folding symplectic manifolds are manifolds equipped with a
closed 2-form having only folding-type degeneracies;
they will be explained and illustrated.
Winter 1998 meeting of the PNGS