Symplectic embeddings and infinite staircases

 Princeton/IAS Symplectic Geometry Seminar Topic: Symplectic embeddings and infinite staircases Speaker: Ana Rita Pires Affiliation: Fordham University Date: Friday, April 15 Time/Room: 10:30am - 11:30am/S-101 Video Link: https://video.ias.edu/puias/2016/0415-Pires

McDuff and Schlenk studied an embedding capacity function, which describes when a 4-dimensional ellipsoid can symplectically embed into a 4-ball. The graph of this function includes an infinite staircase determined by the odd index Fibonacci numbers. Infinite staircases have also been shown to exist in the graphs of the embedding capacity functions when the target manifold is a polydisk or the ellipsoid $E(2,3)$. This talk describes joint work with Dan Cristofaro-Gardiner, Tara Holm, and Alessia Mandini, in which we use ECH capacities to show that infinite staircases exist for these and a few other target manifolds. I will also explain why we conjecture that these are the only such twelve.