The groundbreaking results of the near past - Donaldson's result on Lef schetz pencils on symplectic manifolds and Giroux's correspondence be tween contact structures and open book decompositions - brought a top ological flavor to global symplectic and contact geometry. This topological aspect is strengthened by the existing results of Weinstein and Eliashberg (and Gompf in dimension 4) on handle attachment in the symplectic and Stein category, and by Giroux's theory of convex surfaces, enabling us to perform surgeries on contact 3-manifolds. The main objective of these notes is to provide a self-contained introduction to the theory of surgeries one can perform on contact 3-manifolds and Stein surfaces. We will adopt a very topological point of view based on handlebody theory, in particular, on Kirby calculus for 3- and 4-dimensionalmanifolds. Surgery is a constructive method by its very nature. Applying it in an intricate way one can see what can be done. These results are nicely com plemented by the results relying on gauge theory - a theory designed to prove that certain things cannot be done. We will freely apply recent results of gauge theory without a detailed introduction to these topics; we will be content with a short introduction to some forms of Seiberg-Witten theory and some discussions regarding Heegaard Floer theory in two Appendices.

From the reviews:

"This book introduces the reader to modern trends in low-dimensional contact and symplectic geometry. They also touch on and hint at many other interesting topics. This book is a highly recommended introduction to this exciting circle of ideas." (John B. Etnyre, Mathematical Reviews, Issue 2005 k)

Klappentext

Surgery is the most effective way of constructing manifolds. This is
especially true in dimensions 3 and 4, where Kirby calculus provides a
method for manipulating surgery diagrams. The groundbreaking results
of Donaldson (on Lefschetz fibrations) and Giroux (on open book
decompositions) now allow one to incorporate analytic
structures into these diagrams: symplectic or Stein structures
in the 4-dimensional case, contact structures in the 3-dimensional
situation. This volume gives an introduction to the
surgery techniques adapted to these additional structures.
The necessary topological background on Lefschetz fibrations and open
book decompositions is developed in the book. Also included are
rapid introductions to the basics and applications of
Seiberg--Witten and Heegaard Floer theories.

Inhalt

1. Introduction.- 2. Topological Surgeries.- 3. Symplectic 4-Manifolds.- 4. Contact 3-Manifolds.- 5. Convex Surfaces in Contact 3-Manifolds.- 6. Spinc Structures on 3- and 4-Manifolds.- 7. Symplectic Surgery.- 8. Stein Manifolds.- 9. Open Books and Contact Structures.- 10. Lefschetz Fibrations on 4-Manifolds.- 11. Contact Dehn Surgery.- 12. Fillings of Contact 3-Manifolds.- 13. Appendix: SeibergWitten Invariants.- 14. Appendix: Heegaard Floer Theory.- 15. Appendix: Mapping Class Groups.