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A symplectic blowup replaces a small symplectic ball around the point by an exceptional divisor ${\mathbb{CP}}^{n-1}$, for ${\dim }_{\mathbb{R}}X=2n$. One can construct its form by symplectic reduction. In a Darboux chart, consider ${\mathbb{C}}^n\times \mathbb{C}$ with the circle actionOn ${\mu }^{-1}(R^2/2)$ the action is free because $z\ne 0$. Its quotient therefore carries a smooth symplectic form. Where $w\ne 0$, choose the representative with $w$ positive real; the reduced form is the original form on $|z|>R$. Where $w=0$, the quotient is the Hopf fibration quotient of $|z|=R$, namely ${\mathbb{CP}}^{n-1}$. The local quotient is the tautological complex line bundle near its zero section, hence the local blowup. Glue this model to the exterior of the ball to obtain a symplectic form on the blowup.

The area of a projective line in the exceptional divisor is $\epsilon =\pi R^2$. For a closed $X$, changing this size changes the symplectic volume:Consequently the blowup is not determined up to symplectomorphism without a size choice. The underlying smooth blowup is fixed, but the symplectic construction has a parameter, as in symplectic blowup size changes volume.

For the blowdown map $\pi$ and exceptional divisor $E$, the First Chern class isIn real dimension four this becomes ${\pi }^{\ast }{c}_1(TX)-\mathrm{PD}[E]$, the first Chern class formula for a symplectic blowup.

The tangent bundle of the standard four-torus is a trivial complex rank-two bundle, so its symplectic canonical class is zero. For a generic fiber $F$ of a symplectic Lefschetz pencil, the symplectic adjunction formula gives $2g-2=F^2$. Two generic fibers intersect precisely at the base points, each with local intersection number one in the pencil model $[z_1:z_2]$. HenceThis is base-point count for a Lefschetz pencil on a symplectic four-torus.

For a symplectic ball centered at the origin, its symplectic blowup replaces a smaller concentric ball by the disk bundle in ${\mathcal{O}}_{{\mathbb{CP}}^{n-1}}(-1)$. The zero section is the exceptional divisor $E\cong {\mathbb{CP}}^{n-1}$; the blowdown collapses $E$ to the original point and is a symplectomorphism away from $E$. The new symplectic form agrees with ${\omega }_0$ outside the surgery region, while its integral over a line in $E$ specifies the blowup size. In real dimension four, $E\cong {\mathbb{CP}}^1$ and $E^2=-1$.

A Lefschetz pencil on the compact oriented four-manifold $X$ is a mapwith finite base locus $B$, such that orientation-compatible complex coordinates give the local model $f(z_1,z_2)=[z_1:z_2]$ at a base point and $f(z_1,z_2)=z_1^2+z_2^2$ at each critical point. Blowing up all $b=|B|$ base points produces a Lefschetz fibration $\tilde{X}\to S^2$ whose regular fiber is the closed smooth fiber of the pencil.

If that fiber has genus $g$ and there are $m$ critical points, thenEvery blowup raises the Euler characteristic by one, so $\chi (\tilde{X})=\chi (X)+b$. Therefore the Euler characteristic of a Lefschetz pencil is

Now let $X={\mathbb{CP}}^2$ with its Fubini-Study form. A symplectic smooth fiber $F$ represents $dH\in H_2({\mathbb{CP}}^2;\mathbb{Z})$ for some positive integer $d$, because its symplectic area is positive. The symplectic adjunction formula, using $K_{{\mathbb{CP}}^2}=-3H$, givesand henceThese values are $0,0,1,3,6,10,\dots$. They are all attained: two sufficiently general homogeneous polynomials of degree $d$ generate a pencil of complex plane curves with only the singularities allowed in a Lefschetz pencil, and its smooth fibers are symplectic. Thus the displayed list is exactly the list described by the Genus of a symplectic Lefschetz pencil on the complex projective plane.

Normalize the Fubini-Study form so that a complex projective line has symplectic area $\pi$. The displayed map takes the unit symplectic ball in ${\mathbb{C}}^n$ diffeomorphically onto the complement of the last-coordinate hyperplane. Its lift to the unit sphere has last coordinate positive real, so that coordinate contributes zero to the pulled-back standard symplectic form. The map is therefore a symplectomorphism.

A symplectic blowup at a point removes a small symplectic ball and collapses its Hopf-circle boundary fibers, replacing the center by an exceptional divisor $E\cong {\mathbb{CP}}^{n-1}$. The resulting form agrees with the original form away from the surgery region, and its integral over a projective line in $E$ records the blowup size. In real dimension four, $E\cong {\mathbb{CP}}^1$ and $E^2=-1$.

Two disjoint symplectic balls of radii $r_1,r_2$ embedding into the unit four-ball must satisfy the displayed inequality. Extend their transported standard complex structures on smaller concentric balls to a compatible almost complex structure on the projective plane. A degree-one J-holomorphic curve through both centres has area $\pi$. The Monotonicity theorem for a J-holomorphic curve bounds its area in each smaller ball below by $\pi {\rho }_i^2$. Disjointness allows these bounds to be added; letting ${\rho }_i$ increase to $r_i$ proves the result.