The symplectic neighborhood theorem says that a symplectomorphism between compact symplectic submanifolds, together with a symplectic vector bundle isomorphism of their symplectic normal bundles, extends to a symplectomorphism of neighborhoods. To outline the proof, use tubular neighborhoods to extend the bundle identification smoothly. The two pulled-back symplectic forms agree as bilinear forms along the zero section. The relative Poincaré lemma writes their difference as , with vanishing there. Their linear interpolation remains nondegenerate on a sufficiently small neighborhood. Solving
and integrating gives the relative Moser theorem; the flow fixes the submanifold and carries one form to the other.
For the symplectic fiber sum along a square-zero surface, the self-intersection is the Euler number of the oriented rank-two normal bundle. Thus each normal bundle is trivial. Rescale one ambient symplectic form if necessary to equalize the areas of the two copies of . The Moser theorem for the surface then supplies a base identification preserving their area forms. The symplectic neighborhood theorem identifies each neighborhood with a product carrying
Remove small disk neighborhoods and glue collars with the base identification and
for a suitable positive constant . Both signs reverse, so the normal two-forms match; the base forms already match. They define a closed nondegenerate two-form across the neck, agreeing with the ambient forms elsewhere. This constructs the symplectic sum. Its construction uses the area normalization and the chosen normal-bundle gluing.
For a smooth counterexample, take , and in a small four-ball in each choose an unknotted sphere bounding a three-ball. These spheres are null-homologous and have self-intersection zero. Their standard smooth fiber sum is
Indeed, the complement of the standard in is ; doubling these complements gives , and the two ambient projective-plane summands remain as connected sums. This is the smooth fiber sum along unknotted null-homologous spheres.
In the induced orientation, both summands in have positive positive index of the intersection form. The symplectic connected-sum obstruction therefore rules out a symplectic form: connected-sum vanishing of the Seiberg–Witten invariant of a four-manifold contradicts Taubes nonvanishing theorem. In the opposite orientation the intersection form is negative definite, also ruling out a symplectic form, whose class has positive square. Thus the smooth fiber sum need not be symplectic.
The symplectic neighborhood theorem says that a symplectomorphism between closed symplectic submanifolds which lifts to an isomorphism of their symplectic normal bundles extends to a symplectomorphism of neighborhoods.
Let and be the given copies of . Their self-intersection numbers are the Euler classes of their oriented normal bundles, so square zero makes both normal bundles trivial. The neighborhood theorem identifies neighborhoods with . Remove their interiors and identify the boundary circle bundles by a map covering the chosen identification and reversing the normal-circle orientation. On collars, the two forms have the model
and the radial coordinate can be reversed while the circle coordinate is reversed so that the forms glue. A collar application of Moser's trick removes any discrepancy. This proves that the symplectic fiber sum along a square-zero surface has a natural symplectic form.
The displayed relation is an ordinary product relation, so
where the relation eliminates . The Gompf realization theorem constructs a closed symplectic four-manifold with this fundamental group. Concretely, its construction starts from a product of a sufficiently high-genus surface and a torus, represents the two surviving generators and the relations by loops, and crosses the relevant loops with circle factors to obtain square-zero tori. Symplectic sums with copies of the rational elliptic surface kill the unwanted generators and impose the relations: the complement of a regular elliptic fiber is simply connected, so the Seifert-van Kampen theorem gives exactly .
Finally, is simply connected and has real dimension . With the product symplectic form,
is a closed symplectic manifold of real dimension and has fundamental group .
The symplectic neighborhood theorem says that a neighborhood of a compact symplectic submanifold is determined, up to symplectomorphism, by the restricted symplectic form and its symplectic normal bundle. More precisely, if is a symplectomorphism and an isomorphism of symplectic normal bundles covers , then that bundle isomorphism extends to a symplectomorphism between neighborhoods of and .
If a compatible almost complex structure is prescribed along a closed symplectic submanifold and preserves , it extends to one on . Choose a compatible structure separately on and its symplectic normal bundle, use the associated metric along , extend that metric to , and apply the metric construction of a compatible almost complex structure.
If a symplectomorphism between compact symplectic submanifolds lifts to an isomorphism of their symplectic normal bundles, then it extends to a symplectomorphism between neighborhoods. Thus the germ of a symplectic neighborhood is determined by the restricted form and the symplectic normal bundle.
Symplectic vector bundle 2026-10-14
A symplectic vector bundle has a smooth fiberwise symplectic form, making each fiber a symplectic vector space. Its structure group reduces to the symplectic group. A symplectic normal bundle is an important example.