Four dimensions from two in symplectic topology

Abstract

This paper introduces two-dimensional diagrams that are slight generalizations of moment map images for toric four-manifolds and catalogs techniques for reading topological and symplectic properties of a symplectic four-manifold from these diagrams. The paper offers a purely topological approach to toric manifolds as well as methods for visualizing other manifolds, including the K3 surface, and for visualizing certain surgeries. Most of the techniques extend to higher dimensions.