Whitehead products in symplectomorphism groups and Gromov-Witten invariants

Abstract

Consider any symplectic ruled surface $(M^g_{\lambda},\omega_{\lambda})$ given by $(\Sigma_g \times S^2, \lambda \sigma_{\Sigma_g} \oplus \sigma_{S^2})$. We compute all natural equivariant Gromov-Witten invariants $EGW_{g,0}(M^g_{\lambda};H_k, A-kF)$ for all hamiltonian circle actions $H_k$ on $M^g_{\lambda}$, where $A=[\Sigma_g \times pt]$ and $F= [pt \times S^2]$. We use these invariants to show the nontriviality of certain higher order Whitehead products that live in the homotopy groups of the symplectomorphism groups $G_{\lambda}^g$, $g \geq 0$. Our results are sharper when $g=0,1$ and enable us to answer a question posed by D.McDuff in the case $g=1$ and provide a new interpretation of the multiplicative structure in the ring $H^*(BG^0_{\lambda} ;\Q)$ found by Abreu-McDuff.