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Assume that $L_1$ and $L_2$ are connected Lagrangian submanifolds (of dimension at least 2) which intersect transversally. Do we always get a connected Lagrangian after performing Lagrangian surgeries at the points of intersections?

If not, what is an example?

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  • $\begingroup$ Do you require $L_1$ and $L_2$ to be connected? The requirement of dimension at least 2 makes it hard to visualize things for me, and I am not a symplectic topologist, but think of the case of $T^2$. There you definitely can take $L_1$ to have two connected components, $L_2$ to be connected so that only one component of $L_1$ intersects $L_2$. I think the same example should work for $T^4$. Can you clarify? $\endgroup$
    – user140765
    Commented May 31, 2019 at 16:52
  • $\begingroup$ Yes, I assume that $L_1$ and $L_2$ are connected. Thank you for noticing this. $\endgroup$
    – dusan
    Commented May 31, 2019 at 18:26

1 Answer 1

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Actually, one can always do a (local) surgery to 'resolve' transverse intersection points of Lagrangian submanifolds, and this works in all dimensions, not just dimension $2$. Here is a sketch of an argument:

First, it's a local problem, so you can assume that $L_1$ and $L_2$ are $n$-dimensional Lagrangian embedded submanifolds of $\mathbb{R}^{2n}$ that meet transversely at the origin, i.e., their tangent planes at the origin are Lagrangian subspaces that have trivial intersection. Using Darboux' Theorem, we can choose local coordinates $x^1,\ldots, x^n,p_1,\ldots, p_n$ centered on the origin so that the symplectic form is $\Omega = \mathrm{d}p_i\wedge\mathrm{d}x^i$ (sum on repeated indices in opposition is assumed) and so that $L_1$ is defined in these coordinates by $p_1 = p_2 = \cdots = p_n = 0$. Because $L_2$ is transverse to $L_1$ at $x=p=0$, it follows that the differentials $\mathrm{d}p_i$ are linearly independent on $L_2$ near the origin and so, on $L_2$ we can write $\mathrm{d}x^i = h^{ij}\,\mathrm{d}p_j$ for some functions $h^{ij} = h^{ij}(p)$. The assumption that $L_2$ be Lagrangian is equivalent to the condition that $h^{ij}=h^{ji}$, and then the closure condition $0=\mathrm{d}(\mathrm{d}x^i) = \mathrm{d}h^{ij}\wedge\mathrm{d}p_j$ implies that there exist a function $f = f(p_1,\ldots,p_n)$ such that $h^{ij} = \partial^2f/\partial p_i\partial p_j$, where we can assume that $f$ and its first partials vanish at $p=0$. Then, replacing $x^i$ by $x^i - \partial f/\partial p_i$, we get new Darboux coordinates in which $L_1$ is defined by $p=0$ and $L_2$ is defined by $x=0$. Thus, we are reduced to the linear case, locally.

Now, let $u:S^{n-1}\to\mathbb{R}^n$ be the inclusion of the unit sphere, let $\epsilon>0$ be chosen (as small as you like), and let $f(t)$ and $g(t)$ be two functions on the real line such that $f(t) = t$ for $t<-\epsilon$, g(t) = t for $t>\epsilon$ and $f(t) = 0$ for $t>\epsilon$ while $g(t) = 0$ for $t<-\epsilon$. Assume also that $f(t)$ and $g(t)$ never vanish simultaneously and that $f'(t)$ and $g'(t)$ never vanish simultaneously. (It is easy to construct such functions.) Let $a:\mathbb{R}\times S^{n-1}\to\mathbb{R}^{2n}$ be given by $$ a(t,u) = \bigl(x(t,u),p(t,u)\bigr) = \bigl(\ f(t)\,u,\ g(t)\,u\ \bigr). $$ It is easy to veryify that $a$ is a Lagrangian immersion and that, when $t<-\epsilon$, its image is $L_1$ with a small ball about the origin cut out while, when $t>\epsilon$, its image is $L_2$ with a small ball about the origin cut out. Thus, this Lagrangian 'surgery' joins the two Lagrangian submanifolds smoothly.

N.B.: Note that, if we also arrange that the curve $\bigl(f(t),g(t)\bigr)$ be a smooth embedding of $\mathbb{R}$ into $\mathbb{R}^2$, then $a$ will be a smooth embedding as well.

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  • $\begingroup$ Thank you for your answer and the clarification of the construction. Apparently, answer to my question is yes, we always get a connected Lagrangian since the new submanifold is diffeomorphic to $L_1 \sharp L_2 \sharp P$ where $P$ is a (connected) handle, hence it is connected as a connected sum of connected manifolds of dimension $\geq 2.$ $\endgroup$
    – dusan
    Commented Jun 1, 2019 at 13:54
  • $\begingroup$ See also Polterovich's short paper "The surgery of Lagrange submanifolds". $\endgroup$ Commented Jun 2, 2019 at 19:14

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