2018Geometry & TopologyOpen access

Markov numbers and Lagrangian cell complexes in the complex projective plane

J. D. Evans, Ivan Smith

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Abstract

We study Lagrangian embeddings of a class of two-dimensional cell complexes L_p,q into the complex projective plane. These cell complexes, which we call pinwheels, arise naturally in algebraic geometry as vanishing cycles for quotient singularities of type 1/p² (pq -- 1, 1) (Wahl singularities). We show that if a pinwheel admits a Lagrangian embedding into CP² then p is a Markov number and we completely characterise q. We also show that a collection of Lagrangian pinwheels Lpᵢ;qᵢ , i = 1,...,N, cannot be made disjoint unless N ≤ 3 and the pᵢ form part of a Markov triple. These results are the symplectic analogue of a theorem of Hacking and Prokhorov, which classifies complex surfaces with quotient singularities admitting a Q- Gorenstein smoothing whose general fibre is CP².

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We study Lagrangian embeddings of a class of two-dimensional cell complexes L_p,q into the complex projective plane. These cell complexes, which we call pinwheels, arise naturally in algebraic geometry as vanishing cycles for quotient singularities of type 1/p² (pq -- 1, 1) (Wahl singularities). We show that if a pinwheel admits a Lagrangian embedding into CP² then p is a Markov number and we completely characterise q. We also show that a collection of Lagrangian pinwheels Lpᵢ;qᵢ , i = 1,...,N, cannot be made disjoint unless N ≤ 3 and the pᵢ form part of a Markov triple. These results are the symplectic analogue of a theorem of Hacking and Prokhorov, which classifies complex surfaces with quotient singularities admitting a Q- Gorenstein smoothing whose general fibre is CP².

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Available abstract

We study Lagrangian embeddings of a class of two-dimensional cell complexes L_p,q into the complex projective plane. These cell complexes, which we call pinwheels, arise naturally in algebraic geometry as vanishing cycles for quotient singularities of type 1/p² (pq -- 1, 1) (Wahl singularities). We show that if a pinwheel admits a Lagrangian embedding into CP² then p is a Markov number and we completely characterise q. We also show that a collection of Lagrangian pinwheels Lpᵢ;qᵢ , i = 1,...,N, cannot be made disjoint unless N ≤ 3 and the pᵢ form part of a Markov triple. These results are the symplectic analogue of a theorem of Hacking and Prokhorov, which classifies complex surfaces with quotient singularities admitting a Q- Gorenstein smoothing whose general fibre is CP².

Key concepts: Mathematics, Gravitational singularity, Quotient, Symplectic geometry, Pure mathematics, Type (biology), Markov chain, Embedding

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