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# Untitled Document

The gluing construction for normally generic

$`J`$-holomorphic curves

Jean-Claude Sikorav

Abstract. Let $`C_0=[\mathrm{\Sigma }_0,f_0]`$ be a stable $`J`$-holomorphic curve in an almost complex manifold $`(V,J)`$. Under an assumption of normal genericity, we show that $`C_0`$ has in the space of homologous stable $`J`$-curves of the same genus a locally Euclidean neighbourhood of the expected dimension given by Riemann-Roch. In dimension $`4`$, the normal genericity condition is satisfied if i) $`c_1(TV),C_i>0`$ for each component of $`C_0`$ and ii) the only singularities of $`C_0`$ are ordinary double points. We also give an extension of these results for curves containing a given finite set. As an application, we show that every symplectic surface of degree $`3`$ in $`\text{C}\text{P}^2`$ is symplectically isotopic to an algebraic curve.

AMS 53C65, 30G20, 58F05

Keywords: $`J`$-holomorphic curve, nodal curve, symplectic surface

1. Introduction and statement of the results The gluing technique for $`J`$-holomorphic curves has been introduced by A. Floer in his definition of “symplectic Floer homology” \[F\]. It first appeared in the following form: given two (or more) $`J`$-holomorphic curves which intersect and satisfy a suitable genericity condition, their union can be approximated by a continuous family of $`J`$-holomorphic curves, the convergence near the intersection points being like that of $`\{xy=t\}\text{C}^2`$ to $`\{xy=0\}`$ for $`t\text{C}^{}`$, $`t0`$. The proof is similar to C. Taubes’ gluing construction for instantons, ie one first constructs an approximately $`J`$-holomorphic curve and then one uses the implicit function theorem to find a true $`J`$-holomorphic curve nearby. This is very well explained in the Appendix A to the book \[MS\] of D. McDuff and D. Salamon. \[MS\] treated only the case where all curves are rational and the intersections take place between different curves, in which case the deformed curve is also rational: cf. the model $`\{xy=0\}\{xy=t\}`$, now considered in $`\text{C}\text{P}^2`$. Later it was realized that this gluing construction can be generalized to any $`J`$-curve parameterized by a Riemann surface with nodes (or nodal): in other words, the components may have arbitrary genus, and have self-intersection. The idea of parameterizing a $`J`$-curve by a nodal Riemann surface is due to M. Kontsevich \[KM\], who used it to reformulate Gromov’s compactness theorem in terms of stable $`J`$-holomorphic-maps, viewing it as an “embedded” version of Deligne-Mumford’s compactification of $`_g`$.

Remark. We prefer to use the terminology “stable $`J`$-holomorphic curve”, or simply “stable $`J`$-curve”. To formulate this generalized gluing result, we introduce the space $`\overline{}_g(V,J,A)`$ of stable $`J`$-curves of genus $`g`$ in $`V`$, in the homology class $`AH_2(V;\text{Z})`$. A point in this space is an isomorphism class $`[\mathrm{\Sigma }_0,f_0]`$, where $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_0`$ is a nodal Riemann surface of genus $`g`$ and $`f_0:\mathrm{\Sigma }_0V`$ is a $`J`$-holomorphic map, with $`(f_0)_{}(\mathrm{\Sigma }_0)=A`$. The stability condition means that the group $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_0=\mathrm{Aut}(\mathrm{\Sigma }_0,f_0)`$ is finite. If $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_0=\{\mathrm{Id}\}`$, $`f_0`$ is called simple (or primitive). We shall denote by $`_g(V,J,A)`$ the subspace obtained when $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_0`$ is smooth. We shall also need the extended spaces

$$\overline{\text{M}}(V)=\underset{J𝒥(V)}{}\overline{}_g(V,J),\overline{\text{M}}_g(V,A)=\underset{J𝒥(V)}{}\overline{}_g(V,J,A),$$

where $`𝒥(V)`$ is the space of almost complex structures on $`V`$. They are equipped with natural continuous projections $`\pi :\overline{\text{M}}_g(V),\overline{\text{M}}_g(V,A)𝒥(V).`$ Remark. Ideally, one would like to consider structures of class $`𝒞^{\mathrm{}}`$, but for the Fredholm analysis and in particular the use of the Sard-Smale theorem, one has to work with structures of class $`𝒞^{N,\alpha }`$ with $`N`$ very large (cf. \[MS\])).

Let $`C_0=[\mathrm{\Sigma }_0,f_0]`$ be an element of $`\overline{}_g(V,J,A)`$. Linearizing the $`J`$-holomorphy equation $`\overline{}_Jf=0`$ for maps $`f:\mathrm{\Sigma }_0V`$ defined on the fixed Riemann surface $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_0`$, one obtains the operator

$$D_{f_0}:\mathrm{\Gamma }(f_0^{}TV)\mathrm{\Omega }^{0,1}(f_0^{}TV),$$

which is of the form $`\overline{}+a`$ (generalized Cauchy-Riemann). It is Fredholm (for suitable differetiability classes), with complex index (half the real index) given by Riemann-Roch:

$$\mathrm{ind}_\text{C}(D_{f_0})=c_1(TV),A+n(1g).$$

Here $`c_1(TV)H^2(V;\text{Z})`$ is the first Chern class of $`(TV,J)`$. Note that the formal dimension $`i(A,g)`$ of $`\overline{}_g(V,J,A)`$ (or of $`_g(V,J,A)`$) over C is

$$i(A,g)=c_1(TV),A+(n3)(1g)=\mathrm{ind}(D_{f_0})+(3g3),$$

the difference $`3g3`$ being $`\mathrm{dim}(_g)\mathrm{dim}\mathrm{Aut}(\mathrm{\Sigma }_0)`$, accounting for the variation of the source as a Riemann surface and the equivalence relation. We shall say that $`C_0=[\mathrm{\Sigma }_0,f_0]`$ is parametrically generic if $`D_{f_0}`$ is onto. We can now state the generalized gluing result. With different notations, it can be found in the papers \[RT\] of Y. Ruan and G. Tian (Theorem 6.1, special case $`\nu _t=0`$), \[LT\] of J. Li and G. Tian (Proposition 3.4, special case $`S=0`$) and \[FO\] of K. Fukaya and K. Ono (\[FO\], Theorem 12.9, special case $`E_\sigma =0`$). It is also implicit in the work \[Sie1\] of B. Siebert.

Theorem 0. Let $`C_0=[\mathrm{\Sigma }_0,f_0]`$ in $`\overline{}_g(V,J,A)`$ be parametrically generic. Then there is a local homeomorphism

$$\varphi _J:(\overline{}_g(V,J,A),C_0)(\text{C}^m\times (\text{C}^{i(A,g)m}/\mathrm{\Gamma }_0),(0,[0])),$$

where the finite group $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_0=\mathrm{Aut}(\mathrm{\Sigma }_0,f_0)`$ acts linearly. Moreover, let us number the nodes $`1,\mathrm{},m`$, and let $`\tau _1,\mathrm{},\tau _m`$ be the $`m`$ first complex coordinates of $`\varphi _J`$. Then the curves $`C`$ such that $`\tau _i(C)=0`$ are exactly those for which the parameterizing surface $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ keeps the $`i`$-eth node of $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_0`$. Finally, there exists a local homeomorphism

$$\stackrel{~}{\varphi }:(\overline{\text{M}}_g(V,A),C_0)(\text{C}^m\times (\text{C}^{i(A,gm)}/\mathrm{\Gamma }_0)\times 𝒥(V),(0,[0],J))$$

whose restrictions $`\varphi _J^{}`$ all have the same properties as $`\varphi _J`$.

Actually, the papers \[LT\], \[FO\], \[Sie1\] also treat the case when $`D_{f_0}`$ is not onto (in particular for non-simple curves, where this condition is no longer generic in $`J`$), by introducing a complement to the image and studying an equation of the type $`\overline{}_Jf=g`$ where $`g`$ belongs to this complement: the solutions have then nothing to do with $`J`$-holomorphic curves, though of course counting them may be interesting from the point of view of symplectic geometry (general definition of Gromov-Witten invariants or of Floer homology). Here we have a different point of view since we are interested in $`J`$-holomorphic curves per se.

There is another possible linearization of the equation $`\overline{}_Jf=0`$, in which one also allows the complex structure of $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_0`$ to vary (cf. \[IS\]). Considering it as an almost complex structure $`j`$ on $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_0`$, one differentiates the equation $`\overline{}_Jf=\frac{1}{2}(df+Jdfj)`$ with respect to $`j`$ as well as to $`f`$. At the point $`(j_0,f_0)`$, we get an operator

$$\begin{array}{cc}\hfill \stackrel{~}{D}_{f_0}& :\mathrm{\Omega }_{j_0}^{0,1}(T\mathrm{\Sigma }_0)\times \mathrm{\Gamma }(f_0^{}TV)\mathrm{\Omega }^{0,1}(f_0^{}TV)\hfill \\ & \stackrel{~}{D}_{f_0}(v,\xi )=\frac{1}{2}Jdf_0(v)+D_{f_0}(\xi ).\hfill \end{array}$$

Let us call $`C_0=[\mathrm{\Sigma }_0,f_0]`$ normally generic if $`\stackrel{~}{D}_{f_0}`$ is onto. The terminology is due to the fact that, when it is possible to define a normal linearized $`\overline{}`$-operator $`D^{N_0}`$ as in (\[G\], 2.1.C1, \[HLS\], \[IS\]), the surjectivity of $`\stackrel{~}{D}_{f_0}`$ is equivalent to that of $`D^N`$: see section 4.

The main result of this paper is that the gluing construction works for a normally generic curve.

Theorem 1. $`C_0=[\mathrm{\Sigma }_0,f_0]`$ be a stable $`J`$-curve which is normally generic. Then all the conclusions of Theorem 0 hold.

In dimension $`4`$, the normal genericity can be ensured by homotopical assumptions (\[G\], 2.1.C1, \[HLS\], \[IS\]). We need here a slight generalization for a curve parametrized by a nodal surface.

Proposition 1. Let $`(V,J)`$ be an almost complex manifold of dimension $`4`$, and let $`[\mathrm{\Sigma }_0,f_0]=C_0`$ be a stable $`J`$-curve in $`\overline{}_g(V,J)`$. We assume that $`f_0`$ is an embedding with distinct tangents near the nodes, and that the restriction $`f_i`$ to each component $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_i`$ satisfies

$$f_i^{}c_1(TV),\mathrm{\Sigma }_i>|df_i^1(0)|,i=1,\mathrm{},r.$$

Then $`C_0`$ is normally generic. The application of Theorem 1 to this case is most significant when $`f_0`$ is an embedding with distinct tangents at the nodes, since then one obtains a description of all geometrically close $`J`$-curves. A $`J`$-curve for which $`f_0`$ is an embedding with distinct tangents at the nodes will be called nodal. Combining Proposition 1 with Theorem 1 and the adjunction formula, we obtain

Corollary 1. Let $`C_0`$ in $`\overline{}_g(V,J,A)`$ be a nodal $`J`$-curve in dimension $`4`$, with components $`C_1,\mathrm{},C_r`$ in the image, satisfying

$$c_1(TV),C_i>0,i=1,\mathrm{},r.$$

Then there are local homeomorphisms

$$\begin{array}{cc}\hfill \varphi _J:(\overline{}_g(V,J,A),C_0)& (\text{C}^m\times \text{C}^{d(A)m},(0,[0])),\hfill \\ \hfill \stackrel{~}{\varphi }:(\overline{\text{M}}_g(V,A),C_0)& (\text{C}^m\times \text{C}^{d(A)m}\times 𝒥(V),(0,[0],J))\hfill \end{array}$$

where

$$d(A)=\frac{1}{2}(A.A+c_1(TV),A),$$

with properties as above.

These results can be extended to the case when the curve is required to contain a given finite set $`FV`$ in the image. We denote $`\overline{}_g(V,J,A)`$ the subset of such curves, and by $`\stackrel{~}{D}_{f_0,F}`$ the restriction of $`\stackrel{~}{D}_{f_0}`$ to the subspace

$$\{(v,\xi )\mathrm{\Omega }^{0,1}(T\mathrm{\Sigma }_0)\times \mathrm{\Gamma }(f_0^{}TV)\xi =0\mathrm{on}f_0^1(F)\}.$$

Then Theorem 1 generalizes to Theorem 1’, and Proposition 1 generalizes to Proposition 1’ (Section 6). Corollary 1 then becomes

Corollary 2. Let $`C_0`$ in $`\overline{}_g(V,J,A)`$ be a nodal $`J`$-curve in dimension $`4`$, with components $`C_1,\mathrm{},C_r`$ in the image. Let $`F`$ be a finite subset of the smooth part of the image. Assume that

$$|FC_i|<c_1(TV),C_i,i=1,\mathrm{},r.$$

Then there are local homeomorphisms

$$\begin{array}{cc}\hfill \varphi _J^F:(\overline{}_g(V,J,A;F),C_0)& (\text{C}^m\times \text{C}^{d(A)|FC_0|},(0,[0]))\hfill \\ \hfill \stackrel{~}{\varphi }_F:(\overline{\text{M}}_g(V,A;F),C_0)& (\text{C}^m\times \text{C}^{d(A)|F|}\times 𝒥(V),(0,[0],J))\hfill \end{array}$$

with properties as above.

As an application of this last result, we give a partial result on the problem of isotopy classes of symplectic surfaces in $`\text{C}\text{P}^2`$.

Theorem 3. A symplectic surface of degree $`3`$ in $`\text{C}\text{P}^2`$ is symplectically isotopic to an algebraic curve.

Organization of the paper. In section 2, we recall the definition of stable $`J`$-holomorphic curves and give a local description of these objects.

In section 3 we prove Theorem 1, following the method of \[MS\]. For the continuity of the constructions with respect to $`\stackrel{}{t}\text{C}^m`$, we follow \[RT\].

In section 4 we define (under some mild restrictions, and only in dimension $`4`$) the normal $`\overline{}`$-operator and prove that its surjectivity is equivalent to the normal genericity.

In section 5 we recall some important properties in dimension $`4`$ and use them to prove Proposition 1 and thus Corollary 1.

In section 6 we state and prove the results about curves containing a fixed finite subset: Theorem 1’, Proposition 1’ and Corollary 2.

Finally, in section 7 we study the isotopy problem for symplectic surfaces and and prove Theorem 3.

2. The space of stable $`J`$-curves of genus $`g`$ in $`V`$

Let $`(V,J)`$ be an almost complex manifold.

2.1. Definition. The space $`\overline{}_g(V,J)`$ of stable $`J`$-holomorphic curves of genus $`g`$ in $`V`$ is the set of isomorphism classes $`[\mathrm{\Sigma },f]`$, where

(i) $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ is a connected Riemann surface with nodes, of arithmetic genus $`h^1(\mathrm{\Sigma },𝒪_\mathrm{\Sigma })=g`$; recall that this is also the genus of any connected smooth deformation, and is given by

$$g=\underset{i=1}{\overset{r}{}}(\stackrel{~}{g}_i1)+m+1=\underset{i=1}{\overset{r}{}}\stackrel{~}{g}_i+mr+1,$$

where $`r`$ is the number of components, $`\stackrel{~}{g}_1,\mathrm{},\stackrel{~}{g}_r`$ the genera of the normalizations and $`m`$ the number of nodes

(ii) $`f:\mathrm{\Sigma }V`$ is a $`J`$-holomorphic map

(iii) $`\mathrm{Aut}(\mathrm{\Sigma },f)`$ is finite (stability condition); equivalently, $`f`$ is nonconstant on each unstable component in the sense of Deligne-Mumford (ie rational and with at most $`2`$ points of the normalization lying over the nodes, or of genus $`1`$ with no point over the nodes). If $`A`$ is an element of $`H_2(V;\text{Z})`$, then $`\overline{}_g(V,J,A)`$ is the subset of $`\overline{}_g(V,J)`$ defined by the condition $`f_{}([\mathrm{\Sigma }])=A`$.

We give now a local description of the topology of $`\overline{}_g(V,J)`$ near a point $`C_0=[\mathrm{\Sigma }_0,f_0]`$, following \[FO\] (sections 9 and 10) and \[Sie1\] (sections 2 and 3).

We define the topology by describing a countable fundamental system of neighbourhoods of $`[\mathrm{\Sigma }_0,f_0]`$. For this, we choose an arbitrary Riemannian metric $`\mu `$ on $`V`$, so that the area

$$\mathrm{area}_\mu (f)=_\mathrm{\Sigma }|\mathrm{\Lambda }^2df|$$

of any map $`f:\mathrm{\Sigma }V`$ is defined. We also choose an arbitrary metric on $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_0`$ and a sequence $`ϵ_i>0`$, $`ϵ_i0`$. Then by definition, the neighbourhood $`𝒩_i`$ ($`i\text{N}`$) of $`[\mathrm{\Sigma }_0,f_0]`$ is the set of all curves $`[\mathrm{\Sigma },f]`$ such that there exists a continuous map $`\kappa :\mathrm{\Sigma }\mathrm{\Sigma }_0`$ with the following properties: i) $`\varphi `$ is a diffeomorphism over $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_0N_0`$, where $`N_0`$ is the set of nodes, and $`\varphi ^1(N_0)`$ is a union of circles ii) $`|\overline{}\varphi |ϵ_i|\varphi _i|`$ over $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_0𝒰_{ϵ_i}`$ where $`𝒰_{ϵ_i}`$ is a $`ϵ_i`$-neighbourhood of $`N_0`$

iii) $`\mathrm{dist}_{C^0}(f\varphi ^1,f_0)0`$ on $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_0N_0`$.

Remarks 1) Note that if $`V`$ is a point then $`\overline{}_g(V,J)=\overline{}_g`$, the Deligne-Mumford compactification. 2) We have given a rather weak description of the convergence of $`f_i`$ to $`f`$. Actually, the proof of Gromov’s compactness theorem shows that one will also have, for some $`ϵ_i^{}0`$, $`\mathrm{dist}_{C^1}(f\varphi ^1,f_0)<ϵ_i^{}`$ on $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_0𝒰_{ϵ_i^{}}`$ and $`\mathrm{area}_\mu (f_{|E_i})<ϵ_i^{}`$ for each component $`E`$ of $`𝒰_{ϵ_i^{}}`$. In fact, we shall need the fact that, in a suitable sense, $`f`$ is close to $`f_0`$ in the $`L_1^p`$-topology for any $`p]2,+\mathrm{}[`$. 3) One can generalize the definition of $`\overline{}_g(V,J)`$ to include marked points, thus obtaining spaces $`\overline{}_{g,m}(V,J)`$. As in 1), one has $`\overline{}_{g,m}(V,J)=\overline{}_{g,m}`$ if $`V`$ is a point. Clearly, the topology defined in this way does not depend on the choice of $`(ϵ_i)`$ or $`\mu `$. Less obvious, but true, is the fact that it is Hausdorff. Another easy property is that the homology class $`A=f_{}([\mathrm{\Sigma }])H_2(V;\text{Z})`$ is locally constant on $`\overline{}_g(V,J)`$, so that one has a topological sum

$$\overline{}_g(V,J)=\underset{AH_2(V;\text{Z})}{}\overline{}_g(V,J,A).$$

To state Gromov’s compactness theorem, we recall the notion of tameness: an almost complex manifold $`(V,J)`$ equipped with a metric $`\mu `$ is tame if for every compact $`KV`$ and every $`C>0`$, there is a compact $`K^{}V`$ such that every $`J`$-curve $`C=f(\mathrm{\Sigma })`$, $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ connected, which meets $`K`$, is contained in $`K^{}`$. This is the case for instance if $`V`$ is compact, or $`(V,J,\mu )`$ has a compact quotient, or more generally has a bounded geometry in a suitable sense. Theorem. Let $`(V,J,\mu )`$ be a tame almost complex manifold. Then the area functional $`\mathrm{area}_\mu `$ defines a proper map on $`\overline{}_g(V,J)`$.

In practice, an important special case is the following. Corollary. Let $`(V,\omega ,J)`$ be a compact symplectic manifold equipped with an almost complex structure which is $`\omega `$-positive. Then all the spaces $`\overline{}_g(V,J,A)`$, $`AH_2(V;\text{Z})`$, are compact.

2.2. Explicit description of $`J`$-curves close to $`[\mathrm{\Sigma }_0,f_0]`$ Following \[FO\], \[LT\] and \[Sie\], we explicitly describe the curves $`[\mathrm{\Sigma },f]`$ which are close to some fixed point $`[\mathrm{\Sigma }_0,f_0]`$ in $`\overline{}_g(V,J)`$.

1) One defines, for $`\stackrel{}{t}\text{C}^n`$ small enough, the differentiable surface

$$\mathrm{\Sigma }_\stackrel{}{t}=\left((\mathrm{\Sigma }_0𝒰_\stackrel{}{t})𝒜_\stackrel{}{t}\right)_/,$$

where

$$𝒰_\stackrel{}{t}=\underset{i=1}{\overset{m}{}}\varphi _i(\mathrm{\Delta }_{|t_i|}\times \{0\}\{0\}\times \mathrm{\Delta }_{|t_i|}),$$

the $`\varphi _i`$ being holomorphic embeddings from $`\mathrm{\Delta }\times \{0\}\{0\}\times \mathrm{\Delta }`$ to $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_0`$ whose images are disjoint neighbourhoods of the nodes, and

$$𝒜_\stackrel{}{t}=\underset{i=1}{\overset{m}{}}\psi _i(A_{t_i}),A_t=\{(x,y)\mathrm{\Delta }^2xy=t\}.$$

We identify $`\psi _i(x,y)`$ with $`\varphi _i(x,0)`$ for $`|x|>|y|`$, and with $`\varphi _i(0,y)`$ for $`|x|<|y|`$.

2) For every $`vH^1(T\mathrm{\Sigma }_0)`$ small enough, one defines on $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_\stackrel{}{t}`$ the almost complex structure (necessarily integrable) $`j_{\stackrel{}{t},v}`$ as follows. First, for $`\stackrel{}{t}=\stackrel{}{0}`$ one chooses a lift $`\sigma `$ of the natural map $`\mathrm{\Omega }^{0,1}(T\mathrm{\Sigma }_0)H^1(T\mathrm{\Sigma }_0)`$, which is equivariant under $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_0`$ and such that each $`\sigma (v)`$ vanishes on $`𝒰_1`$. Then, denoting $`j_0`$ the almost complex structure on $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_0`$, one sets

$$j_v=(\mathrm{Id}\frac{j_0\sigma (v)}{2})j_0(\mathrm{Id}\frac{j_0\sigma (v)}{2})^1$$

so that the cohomology class of $`\frac{j_v}{v}_{|v=0}=\stackrel{~}{v}`$ is $`v`$ (Kodaira-Spencer map). Then there is a unique $`j_{\stackrel{}{t},v}`$ such that $`j_{\stackrel{}{t},v}=j_v`$ on $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_0𝒰_\stackrel{}{t}`$ and $`\psi _i^1(j_{\stackrel{}{t},v})`$ is standard on each $`A_{t_i}`$. 3) One “stabilizes” $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_0`$ by marking points on each unstable component, ie such that $`2g_i+m_i<3`$. We mark $`k_i=3(2g_i+m_i)`$ points on the smooth part of $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_i`$. The total number of marked points is

$$k=k_i=h^0(T\mathrm{\Sigma }_0)=\text{dim Aut}(\mathrm{\Sigma }_0).$$

We obtain a stable marked curve $`(\mathrm{\Sigma }_0,\stackrel{}{p}_0)`$, where $`\stackrel{}{p}_0=(p_{0,1},\mathrm{},p_{0,k})`$, which defines a point $`[\mathrm{\Sigma }_0,\stackrel{}{p}_0]\overline{}_{g,k}`$. By the stability hypothesis on $`(\mathrm{\Sigma }_0,f_0)`$, we can do this in such a way that $`f_0`$ is an embedding on a compact neighbourhood $`N=N_j`$ disjoint from the nodes. In particular, we can find disjoint local transversal hypersurfaces $`(H_jV)`$ to the images $`f_0(N_j)`$. One also requires that no marked point lie in $`𝒰_1`$, and that $`𝒰_1`$ be invariant by the finite group $`\mathrm{Aut}(\mathrm{\Sigma }_0,\stackrel{}{p}_0)`$, and that each $`\sigma (v)`$ vanishes on $`\stackrel{}{p}_0`$.

On $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_\stackrel{}{t}`$ one marks $`\stackrel{}{p}_{v,t}=\stackrel{}{p}_0`$. This makes sense for $`\stackrel{}{t}\mathrm{\Delta }^m`$ since these points are then in $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_0𝒰_\stackrel{}{t}`$ which is canonically identified with $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_\stackrel{}{t}𝒜_\stackrel{}{t}`$.

Then we have the Proposition. (cf. \[LT\], Lemma 3.1) Let $`𝒩`$ be a small enough neighbourhood $`𝒩`$ of $`[\mathrm{\Sigma }_0,f_0]`$ in $`\overline{}_g(V,J)`$. Then there is a continuous map

$$\psi :𝒩\text{C}^m\times \frac{H^1(T\mathrm{\Sigma }_0)}{\mathrm{Aut}(\mathrm{\Sigma }_0,f_0)}$$

with the following property: if $`\psi (C)=(\stackrel{}{t},[v])`$ then $`C`$ has a unique representative $`((\mathrm{\Sigma }_\stackrel{}{t},j_{\stackrel{}{t},v});f))`$ such that i) $`f(p_{0,j})H_j`$ $`(j)`$

ii) $`f`$ is close to $`f_0`$ on $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_0𝒰_1`$. This is defined as follows: Given $`C=[\mathrm{\Sigma },f]`$ in $`\overline{}_g(V,J)`$ close enough to $`[\mathrm{\Sigma }_0,f_0]`$, we mark $`\stackrel{}{p}=(p_1,\mathrm{},p_k)`$ on $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ such that $`f(p_j)H_j(j)`$; the choice of $`\stackrel{}{p}`$ is not unique, but this will be discussed later. We obtain a point $`[\mathrm{\Sigma },\stackrel{}{p}]`$ in the Deligne-Mumford compactification $`\overline{}_{g,k}`$. By the local structure of this space (cf. \[HM\]), it has a representative $`((\mathrm{\Sigma }_\stackrel{}{t},j_{\stackrel{}{t},v});\stackrel{}{p}_0)`$ where $`(\stackrel{}{t},v)`$ is small; $`\stackrel{}{t}`$ is uniquely defined, and $`v`$ is defined up to the action of $`\mathrm{Aut}(\mathrm{\Sigma }_0,\stackrel{}{p}_0)`$ on $`H^1(T\mathrm{\Sigma }_0)`$. Also, it is possible to choose $`v`$ such that $`C=[(\mathrm{\Sigma }_\stackrel{}{t},j_{\stackrel{}{t},v};f]`$ with $`f`$ satisfying i) and ii) of the proposition. Note that $`f`$ is unique once $`(\stackrel{}{t},v)`$ has been chosen.

There remains to identify the different possible choices for $`(\stackrel{}{t},v)`$, ie find all $`(\stackrel{}{t}^{},v^{})`$ close to $`(\stackrel{}{0},0)`$ such that there exists $`f^{}:\mathrm{\Sigma }_\stackrel{}{t}V`$, $`(j_{\stackrel{}{t}^{},v^{}},J)`$-holomorphic and satisfying

$`[\mathrm{\Sigma }_{\stackrel{}{t}^{},v^{}},f^{}]=[\mathrm{\Sigma }_{\stackrel{}{t},v},f]`$ $`f^{}(p_{0,j})H_j`$ $`(j)`$

$`f_{|\mathrm{\Sigma }_0𝒰_1}^{}`$ is close to $`(\stackrel{}{0},0,f_{0|\mathrm{\Sigma }_0𝒰_1})`$. We want to see that this is equivalent to $`\stackrel{}{t}^{}=\stackrel{}{t}`$, $`v^{}=\gamma .v`$ for some $`\gamma \mathrm{Aut}(\mathrm{\Sigma }_0,f_0)`$. We shall prove only the direct implication, the converse being easy.

The above conditions are equivalent to the existence of a biholomorphism $`\varphi :(\mathrm{\Sigma }_\stackrel{}{t},j_{\stackrel{}{t},v})(\mathrm{\Sigma }_\stackrel{}{t}^{},j_{\stackrel{}{t}^{},v^{}})`$ such that $`f^{}\varphi =f`$, $`\varphi (p_{0,j})H_j`$ ($`j`$) and $`\varphi `$ is close on $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_0𝒰_1`$ to an element $`\gamma \mathrm{Aut}(\mathrm{\Sigma }_0,f_0)`$.

One easily proves that the subgroup $`\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Gamma }}_0`$ of $`\mathrm{Aut}(\mathrm{\Sigma }_0)`$ generated by $`\mathrm{Aut}(\mathrm{\Sigma }_0,\stackrel{}{p}_0)`$ and $`\mathrm{Aut}(\mathrm{\Sigma }_0,f_0)`$ is still finite. Thus we can impose that it leaves $`𝒰_1`$ invariant, thus each $`\gamma \stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Gamma }}_0`$ will define an isomorphism $`\gamma _{\stackrel{}{t},v}`$ from $`(\mathrm{\Sigma }_\stackrel{}{t},j_{\stackrel{}{t},v})`$ to $`(\mathrm{\Sigma }_\stackrel{}{t},j_{\stackrel{}{t},\gamma .v})`$.

Thus $`\psi =\gamma _{\stackrel{}{t},v}\varphi ^1:\mathrm{\Sigma }_\stackrel{}{t}^{}\mathrm{\Sigma }_\stackrel{}{t}`$ is a $`(j_{\stackrel{}{t},v^{}},j_{\stackrel{}{t}^{},\gamma .v})`$-biholomorphism which is close to the identity on $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_0𝒰_1`$, and $`f^{}(\psi (p_{0,j}))H_j`$ ($`j`$). This implies $`\psi (p_{0,j})=p_{0,j}`$ ($`j`$), thus $`\stackrel{}{t}=\stackrel{}{t}^{}`$ and $`\psi =\mathrm{Id}`$. Thus also $`v^{}=\gamma .v`$, which finishes the proof. Remark. Condition iii) in the description of the topology implies that $`f`$ is close to $`f_0`$ on $`\mathrm{\Sigma }𝒰_\stackrel{}{t}`$, that is on almost all its domain of definition.

2.3. Decomposition according to the topology of the source Denote by $`R_g`$ a set of representatives for each topological type of smooth surface with nodes of arithmetic genus $`g`$. For $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_0R_g`$, we define $`_{\mathrm{\Sigma }_0}(V,J)`$ as the subspace of $`\overline{}_g(V,J)`$ given by the curves $`[\mathrm{\Sigma },f]`$ with $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ diffeomorphic to $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_0`$. Then by definition we have a disjoint decomposition

$$\overline{}_g(V,J)=\underset{\mathrm{\Sigma }R_g}{}_\mathrm{\Sigma }(V,J).$$

Let us call each element of this decomposition an (equitopological) stratum.

One defines similarly the strata $`_{\mathrm{\Sigma },F}(V,J)`$ where $`(\mathrm{\Sigma },F)`$ is a nodal surface and $`F`$ a finite subset of the smooth part. Thus if $`R_{g,m}`$ is a set of representatives of the topological types of $`(\mathrm{\Sigma },F)`$ for $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ of genus $`g`$ and $`|F|=m`$, we have a disjoint decomposition

$$\overline{}_{g,m}(V,J)=\underset{\mathrm{\Sigma }R_{g,m}}{}_\mathrm{\Sigma }(V,J).$$

Local structure of $`_{\mathrm{\Sigma }_0}(V,J)`$ 1) If $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_0`$ is smooth of genus $`g`$, $`_{\mathrm{\Sigma }_0}(V,J)`$ is naturally homeomorphic to the space denoted $`_g(V,J)`$ by \[IS\]. Note that this last space has, under some genericity assumption, a structure of smooth orbifold (cf. \[IS\] and section 4). The smooth structure comes from the fact that, up to a finite group, the space is naturally a subspace of a Banach manifold of maps.

2) More generally, assume that $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_0`$ is nodal, with components $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_1,\mathrm{},\mathrm{\Sigma }_r`$, but restrict to the case where $`\mathrm{dim}(V)=4`$ and $`f_0`$ is an embedding with distinct tangents near each node. Then $`_\mathrm{\Sigma }(V,J)`$ is homeomorphic, and even diffeomorphic to an open subset in the product $`_{i=1}^r_{\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Sigma }}_i}(V,J)`$, defined by suitable intersection properties.

RemarK; The main problem in the study of spaces of $`J`$-curves is that, although equitopological strata are well understood, the way they “hang together” in general is not.

3. Proof of Theorem 1

By 2.2, every $`J`$-curve $`C`$ close to $`[\mathrm{\Sigma }_0,f_0]`$ is of the form $`[\mathrm{\Sigma }_\stackrel{}{t},j_{\stackrel{}{t},v},f]`$ with $`\stackrel{}{t}\text{C}^m`$ well defined and $`vH^1(T\mathrm{\Sigma }_0)`$ determined up to $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_0=\mathrm{Aut}(\mathrm{\Sigma }_0,f_0)`$, $`f`$ being well defined once $`v`$ has been chosen. Also, $`\stackrel{}{t}`$ and $`v`$ tend to $`0`$ as $`CC_0`$, and $`ff_0`$ on the complement of the nodes (remark at the end of 2.2). Following \[MS\], \[RT\], \[LT\] and \[FO\], we shall find these curves by solving the equation for $`(v,f)`$ for a fixed small $`\stackrel{}{t}`$: 1) First, we construct a map $`w_\stackrel{}{t}:\mathrm{\Sigma }_\stackrel{}{t}V`$ which is approximately $`(j_{\stackrel{}{t},0},J)`$-holomorphic. 2) Then we write $`f`$ in the form $`f=\mathrm{exp}_{w_\stackrel{}{t}}(\xi )`$ where $`\xi `$ belongs to $`\mathrm{\Gamma }(\mathrm{\Sigma }_\stackrel{}{t},w_\stackrel{}{t}^{}TV\mathrm{rel}\stackrel{}{p}_0)`$, the space of sections of $`w_\stackrel{}{t}^{}TV`$ which are of class $`L_1^p`$ for some $`2<p<+\mathrm{}`$ and are tangent to $`H_j`$ at each point $`p_{0,j}`$. The equation for $`(v,f)`$ can now be written in the form $`_\stackrel{}{t}(v,\xi )=0`$, where the target space of $`_\stackrel{}{t}`$ is $`\mathrm{\Omega }^{0,1}(w_\stackrel{}{t}^{}TV)`$, the space of forms of class $`L_1^p`$. 3) The equation is to be solved for $`v`$ small and $`\xi `$ small in the $`L^{\mathrm{}}`$-norm. We prove that in fact $`\xi `$ is necessarily small in any norm $`L_1^p`$. We shall then work with such a norm on the source, with the corresponding $`L^p`$-norm on the target, so that $`_\stackrel{}{t}`$ becomes a Fredholm map. 4) We prove that $`_\stackrel{}{t}`$ satisfies the hypotheses of the implicit function theorem, with some uniformity in $`\stackrel{}{t}`$. The key point is that its differential at zero is onto with a right inverse bounded independently of $`\stackrel{}{t}`$. For $`\stackrel{}{t}=\stackrel{}{0}`$ it is exactly the normal genericity. The existence of the inverse for $`\stackrel{}{t}`$ small is not obvious since the dependence of $`_\stackrel{}{t}`$ is $`\stackrel{}{t}`$ is not quite continuous, but the construction of \[MS\] can be extended to our case.

5) A delicate point is the continuity in $`\stackrel{}{t}`$ of the solutions, for which we use an idea of \[LT\].

3.1. Construction of an almost $`J`$-holomorphic map on $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_\stackrel{}{t}`$ Let $`\stackrel{}{t}\text{C}^m`$ be such that $`|\stackrel{}{t}]=\mathrm{max}|t_i|<1`$. We construct a map $`w_\stackrel{}{t}:\mathrm{\Sigma }_\stackrel{}{t}V`$ (corresponding to $`w_R`$ in \[MS\]) as follows: $`w_\stackrel{}{t}=f_0\stackrel{~}{\rho }_\stackrel{}{t}`$, with

$$\{\begin{array}{cc}\hfill \stackrel{~}{\rho }_\stackrel{}{t}& =\mathrm{Id}\mathrm{on}\mathrm{\Sigma }_\stackrel{}{t}𝒜_\stackrel{}{t}\hfill \\ \hfill \stackrel{~}{\rho }_\stackrel{}{t}(\psi _i(x,y))& =\varphi _i(\rho (|t_i|^{1/4}|x|)x,0)\mathrm{if}|x||y|\hfill \\ \hfill \stackrel{~}{\rho }_\stackrel{}{t}(\psi _i(x,y))& =\varphi _i(0,\rho (|t_i|^{1/4}|y|)y)\mathrm{if}|x||y|.\hfill \end{array}$$

Here $`\rho :\text{R}^+[0,1]`$ is a smooth cutoff function such that

$$\rho (s)=0\mathrm{for}s1\mathrm{and}\rho (s)=1\mathrm{for}s2.$$

In particular:

$$w_\stackrel{}{t}(\psi _i(x,y))=f_0\varphi _i(0,0)\mathrm{if}|x|\mathrm{and}|y||t_i|^{1/4}.$$

Comments. We have replaced the $`\delta `$ of \[MS\], which was small but not infinitesimal, by $`|t_i|^{1/4}`$: this is to get the continuity in $`\stackrel{}{t}`$ of the constructions, notably that of the right inverse $`R_\stackrel{}{t}`$.

To measure the almost-holomorphy of $`w_\stackrel{}{t}`$, we equip $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_\stackrel{}{t}`$ with a metric which is fixed on $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_0𝒰_1`$ and induced on $`𝒜_\stackrel{}{t}`$ by the embeddings $`A_{t_i}\text{C}^2`$.

Proposition. One has for every $`2<p<\mathrm{}`$ the estimate

$$\overline{}_{j_{0,\stackrel{}{t}}}w_\stackrel{}{t}_{L^p}=O(|\stackrel{}{t}|^{1/2p}).$$

Proof. We evaluate the contribution to $`\overline{}_{j_{0,\stackrel{}{t}}}w_\stackrel{}{t}_{L^p}^p`$ of $`A_{i,t_i}`$, or rather the half $`\{|x||t_i|^{1/2}\}`$. Then $`\overline{}_{j_{0,\stackrel{}{t}}}w_\stackrel{}{t}`$ is $`O(|t_i|^{1/4}|x|)`$ pointwise, and vanishes except if $`|t_i|^{1/4}|x|2|t_i|^{1/4}`$. Thus this contribution is at most of the order of

$$(|t_i|^{1/4})^p._{|t_i|^{1/4}}^{2|t_i|^{1/4}}r^{p+1}dr=O((|t_i|^{p/4}).(|t_i|^{p/4+1/2}))=O(|t_i|^{1/2}).$$

Thus the total integral is $`O(|\stackrel{}{t}|^{1/2})`$, which proves (ii).

3.2. Setting up the equation We want to solve, for a given small $`\stackrel{}{t}\text{C}^m`$, the equation

$$\overline{}_{j_{\stackrel{}{t},v},J}f:=\frac{1}{2}(df+Jdfj_{\stackrel{}{t},v})=0$$

where the unknown is $`(v,f)`$ with $`vH^1(T\mathrm{\Sigma }_0)`$ and $`f\mathrm{Map}(\mathrm{\Sigma }_\stackrel{}{t},V)`$ such that $`f(p_{0,j})H_j(j)`$. Also, $`v`$ and the $`𝒞^0`$ distance $`\mathrm{dist}(f,w_\stackrel{}{t})`$ should be small. Choosing the metric on $`V`$ so that the transversals $`(H_j)`$ are totally geodesic, we can write the unkown $`f`$ uniquely in the form

$$f=\mathrm{exp}_{w_\stackrel{}{t}}(\xi ),\xi \mathrm{\Gamma }(w_\stackrel{}{t}^{}TV\mathrm{rel}\stackrel{}{p}_0)\text{small in the}L^{\mathrm{}}\mathrm{norm}.$$

The expression $`\overline{}_{j_{\stackrel{}{t},v}}f`$ takes values in $`\mathrm{\Omega }^{0,1}(f^{}TV)`$. Let us fix a $`J`$-complex connection on $`TV`$ and use it to define the parallel transport along geodesics. We then get an isomorphism $`\mathrm{\Pi }_\stackrel{}{t}`$ from $`\mathrm{\Omega }^{0,1}(f^{}TV)`$ to $`\mathrm{\Omega }^{0,1}(w_\stackrel{}{t}^{}TV)`$. Thus we have to solve the equation $`_\stackrel{}{t}(v,\xi )=0`$, where

$$_\stackrel{}{t}:H^1(T\mathrm{\Sigma }_0)\times \mathrm{\Gamma }(w_\stackrel{}{t}^{}TV\mathrm{rel}\stackrel{}{p}_0)\mathrm{\Omega }^{0,1}(w_\stackrel{}{t}^{}TV)$$

is defined by

$$_\stackrel{}{t}(v,\xi )=\mathrm{\Pi }_\stackrel{}{t}(\overline{}_{j_{\stackrel{}{t},v},J}(\mathrm{exp}_{w_\stackrel{}{t}}(\xi ))).$$

More precisely, we want to describe all the solutions such that $`|v|`$ and $`\xi _L^{\mathrm{}}`$ are small. The map $`_\stackrel{}{t}`$ is defined on a ball $`B(ϵ_0)=\{(v,\xi )(v,\xi )<ϵ_0\}`$ independent of $`\stackrel{}{t}`$, and satisfies

$$_\stackrel{}{t}(0,0)=O(|\stackrel{}{t}|^{1/2p}).$$

Another property of $`_\stackrel{}{t}`$ is that it is of class $`𝒞^{\mathrm{}}`$. To see this, note that its pointwise value can be written

$$(_\stackrel{}{t}(v,\xi ))(z)=A(w_\stackrel{}{t}(z),v,\xi (z)).w_\stackrel{}{t}(z)+B(w_\stackrel{}{t}(z),v,\xi (z)).\xi (z),$$

where $`A`$ and $`B`$ are $`𝒞^{\mathrm{}}`$. This also implies that for every $`k\text{N}`$, $`_\stackrel{}{t}_{𝒞^k(B(ϵ_0))}`$ is bounded, with a bound independent of $`\stackrel{}{t}`$.

3.3. Smallness of $`\xi `$ in the $`L_1^p`$-norm Proposition. For every $`ϵ>0`$ there exists $`\eta >0`$ with the following property. Let $`f=\mathrm{exp}_{w_\stackrel{}{t}}(\xi )`$ be $`(j_{v,\stackrel{}{t}},J)`$-holomorphic, with $`|v|`$, $`|\stackrel{}{t}|`$ and $`\xi _L^{\mathrm{}}`$ less than $`\eta `$. Then $`\xi _{L_1^p}`$ is less than $`ϵ`$. Proof. Let $`U`$ be any neighbourhood of the nodes. By the elliptic apriori estimates, we can find $`\eta `$ such that $`\xi _{|\mathrm{\Sigma }_0U}_{L_1^p}`$ is less than $`\frac{ϵ}{2}`$. Thus the proposition is reduced to a local property near the nodes. Let us work in a local chart $`(V,v)(\text{C}^n,0)`$ near the image of a node, $`J`$-holomorphic at $`v`$. Then the holomorphy equation for $`f`$ can be written $`\overline{}w+q(w).w=0`$ where $`q`$ is a map from $`\text{C}^n`$ to $`\overline{\mathrm{End}}_\text{C}(\text{C}^n)`$. Also, replacing the coordinate $`w`$ by $`\delta w`$ with $`\delta `$ arbitrarily small, we can assume that $`q`$ is arbitrarily small in the $`𝒞^1`$-topology.

Using a Riemannian metric on $`V`$ which is a multiple of the standard one in this chart, the proposition is reduced to the following lemma.

Lemma. For every $`ϵ`$ there exists $`\eta `$ with the following property. Let $`q`$ be a map from the polydisk $`\mathrm{\Delta }^n\text{C}^n`$ to $`\overline{\mathrm{End}}_\text{C}(\text{C}^n)`$ and let $`w`$ and $`w^{}`$ be maps from $`A_t`$ to $`\mathrm{\Delta }^n`$ which satisfy the equations

$$\overline{}w+q(w).w=0=\overline{}w^{}+q(w^{}).w^{}=0$$

and the inequalities

$$\mathrm{max}(|t|,q_{𝒞^1},w_{L_1^p},w^{}w_L^{\mathrm{}})<\eta .$$

Then $`w^{}w_{L_1^p(A_t^{})}<ϵ`$, where $`A_t^{}`$ is the intersection of $`A_t`$ with $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{1/2}\times \mathrm{\Delta }_{1/2}`$. Proof of the lemma We first construct a right inverse $`P_t`$ to $`\overline{}:L_1^p(A_t)L^p\mathrm{\Omega }^{0,1}(A_t)`$ which is uniformly bounded. An element of $`L^p\mathrm{\Omega }^{0,1}(A_t)`$ can be decomposed in two parts, one with support in the subannulus $`A_t^+=\{|x||y|\}`$, the other in the subannulus $`A_t^{}=\{|y||x|\}`$. It suffices to solve $`\overline{}f=\alpha `$ for $`\alpha `$ with support in $`A_t^+`$. We write $`\alpha =g(x)\overline{dx}`$ where $`g`$ is a function of class $`L^p`$ defined on $`\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{\Delta }_{|t|^{1/2}}`$, and we define

$$P_t(\alpha )(x,y)=Pg(x)$$

using the standard inverse

$$Pg(x)=\frac{1}{\pi }_\mathrm{\Delta }\frac{g(z)}{zx}𝑑\sigma _z,x\text{C}.$$

Recall that $`\overline{}(Pg)=g`$ on $`\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{Supp}(g)`$ and $`0`$ elsewhere. By Vekua (or Calderon-Zygmund), $`P`$ is bounded from $`L^p(\mathrm{\Delta })`$ to $`L_1^p(\mathrm{\Delta })`$. Since the projection $`(x,y)x`$ from $`A_t`$ to C is Lipschitz, this implies that $`P_t`$ is uniformly bounded. Let $`\xi =w^{}w`$, so that $`\xi _L^{\mathrm{}}`$ is arbitrarily small. Taking the difference between the equations and developing $`q(w+\xi )q(w)`$ to the first order, we get the linear equation

$$\overline{}\xi +q.\xi +a.\xi =0$$

where we now consider $`q`$, as well as $`a`$, as a map defined on $`A_t`$. These maps are arbitrarily small in the $`L^{\mathrm{}}`$-norm. We want to prove that then a solution of this equation satisfies $`q_{L_1^p}Cq_L^{\mathrm{}}`$ with $`C`$ independent of $`t`$. This can be done in a way similar to \[Sik1\] p.171-172 which treats the case of a disk. One uses a smooth cutoff function $`\rho :\mathrm{\Delta }^2[0,1]`$, which vanishes near the boundary and equals $`1`$ on $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{1/2}\times \mathrm{\Delta }_{1/2}`$. Then setting $`\xi _1=\rho \xi `$ one obtains

$$\overline{}\xi _1+q.\xi _1=(\overline{}\rho +q.\rho ).\xi a.\xi _1=g.$$

The right-hand side $`g`$ is $`O(\xi )`$ in the $`L^{\mathrm{}}`$-norm. It suffices to bound $`\xi _{L_1^p}`$ by $`\xi _L^{\mathrm{}}`$, ie to bound $`\overline{}\xi _{L^p}`$ and $`\xi _{L^p}`$. Write $`\xi _1=P_t(\overline{}\xi _1)+h`$ where $`h`$ is holomorphic, and set $`T_t=P_t`$ so that $`T_t`$ is uniformly bounded in $`L^p`$ and $`\xi _1=T_t(\overline{}\xi _1)+h.`$ Note that the definition of $`P_t`$ implies that $`P_t(\overline{}\xi _1)_{L^2}\xi _1_L^{\mathrm{}}`$, thus $`h_{L^2}C\xi _L^{\mathrm{}}`$. Since $`h`$ is holomorphic, one has $`h_{L^{\mathrm{}}(A_t^{})}Ch_{L^2(A_t^{})}`$ and a fortiori $`h_{L^p(A_t^{})}Ch_{L^2(A_t^{})}`$ Thus

$$\begin{array}{cc}\hfill \xi _1_{L^p(A_t)}=\xi _1_{L^p(A_t^{})}& C(\overline{}\xi _1_{L^p(A_t)}+h_{L^p(A_t^{})})\hfill \\ & C(\overline{}\xi _1_{L^p}+C\xi _L^{\mathrm{}}).\hfill \end{array}$$

The equation for $`\xi `$ implies then $`\overline{}\xi _1_{L^p}(1C\eta )C^{}\xi _L^{\mathrm{}}`$. Thus for $`\eta `$ small enough we bound $`\overline{}\xi _1_{L^p}`$ by $`\xi _L^{\mathrm{}}`$, and then also $`\xi _1_{L^p}`$ via the estimate above. This concludes the proof of the lemma and thus of the proposition.

3.4. Fredholm property and surjectivity of $`d_\stackrel{}{0}(0,0)`$ Proposition. i) The operator $`D_\stackrel{}{t}=d_\stackrel{}{t}(0,0)`$ is Fredholm of index $`i(A,g)m`$. ii) The cokernel of $`D_\stackrel{}{0}`$ is identified with that of $`\stackrel{~}{D}_{f_0}`$. In particular, $`D_\stackrel{}{0}`$ is onto if and only if $`[\mathrm{\Sigma }_0,f_0]`$ is normally generic. Proof. First of all, let us observe that the linearization operators $`D_{f_0}`$ and $`\stackrel{~}{D}_{f_0}`$ can be defined when one replaces $`f_0`$ with any map $`w`$ of class $`L_1^p`$, giving operators $`D_w`$ and $`\stackrel{~}{D}_w=\frac{1}{2}JdwD_w`$ with the same properties.

i) The operator $`D_\stackrel{}{t}`$ is the restriction of $`\stackrel{~}{D}_{w_\stackrel{}{t}}`$ to $`\sigma (H^1(T\mathrm{\Sigma }_0))\times \mathrm{\Gamma }(w_\stackrel{}{t}^{}TV\mathrm{rel}\stackrel{}{p}_0)`$. Since $`D_{w_\stackrel{}{t}}`$ is Fredholm and $`H^1(T\mathrm{\Sigma }_0)`$ has finite dimension, this proves that $`D_\stackrel{}{0}`$ is Fredholm. Its index is

$$\begin{array}{cc}\hfill \mathrm{ind}(D_\stackrel{}{0})& =h^1(T\mathrm{\Sigma }_0)+\mathrm{ind}(D_{f_0}\mathrm{rel}\stackrel{}{p}_0)\hfill \\ & =h^1(T\mathrm{\Sigma }_0)+\mathrm{ind}(D_{f_0})h^0(T\mathrm{\Sigma }_0)\hfill \\ & =\mathrm{ind}(D_{f_0})\chi (T\mathrm{\Sigma }_0).\hfill \end{array}$$

On the other hand,

$$\begin{array}{cc}\hfill \chi (T\mathrm{\Sigma }_0)& =\chi (T\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Sigma }}_0)2m=(33g_i)2m\hfill \\ & =33g+3m2m=33g+m,\hfill \end{array}$$

thus $`\mathrm{ind}(D_\stackrel{}{t})=\mathrm{ind}(D_{f_0})+3g3m`$, qed.

ii) The operator $`D_\stackrel{}{0}`$ is the restriction of $`\stackrel{~}{D}_{f_0}=\frac{1}{2}Jdf_0D_{f_0}`$ to $`\sigma (H^1(T\mathrm{\Sigma }_0))\times \mathrm{\Gamma }(f_0^{}TV\mathrm{rel}\stackrel{}{p}_0)`$. We want to prove that this does not diminish the image, ie that

\- restricting from $`\mathrm{\Omega }^{0,1}(T\mathrm{\Sigma }_0)`$ to $`\sigma (H^1(T\mathrm{\Sigma }_0))`$: write $`\stackrel{~}{v}=\sigma (v)+\overline{}u`$ with $`u\mathrm{\Gamma }(T\mathrm{\Sigma }_0)`$, thus $`D_\stackrel{}{0}(\stackrel{~}{v},0)=D_\stackrel{}{0}(\sigma (v),\frac{1}{2}ju)`$ \- restricting from $`\mathrm{\Gamma }(f_0^{}TV)`$ to $`\mathrm{\Gamma }(f_0^{}TV\mathrm{rel}\stackrel{}{p}_0)`$: there exists $`XH^0(T\mathrm{\Sigma }_0)`$ such that $`\xi (p_j)df_0(X(p_j))TH_j`$, thus $`D_\stackrel{}{0}(0,\xi )=D_\stackrel{}{0}(0,\xi df_0X)`$.

3.5. Existence of a uniformly bounded right inverse for $`D_\stackrel{}{t}`$

Proposition. For $`|\stackrel{}{t}|`$ small enough, $`D_\stackrel{}{t}`$ has a right inverse which is uniformly bounded.  Proof. One constructs a quasi-inverse $`Q_\stackrel{}{t}(\eta )`$ as in \[MS\], ie an operator which satisfies

$$D_\stackrel{}{t}Q_\stackrel{}{t}\mathrm{Id}_{L^p}=o(1),\stackrel{}{t}\stackrel{}{0}.$$

For this, we shall need another almost $`J`$-holomorphic map $`u_\stackrel{}{t}`$, corresponding to $`(u_R,v_R)`$ of \[MS\], this time defined on $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_0`$: $`u_\stackrel{}{t}=f_0\widehat{\rho }_\stackrel{}{t}`$, with

$$\{\begin{array}{cc}\hfill \widehat{\rho }_\stackrel{}{t}& =\mathrm{Id}\mathrm{on}\mathrm{\Sigma }_0𝒰_\stackrel{}{t}\hfill \\ \hfill \widehat{\rho }_\stackrel{}{t}(\varphi _i(x,0))& =\varphi _i(\rho (|t_i|^{1/4}|x|)x,0)\mathrm{if}|t|^{1/2}|x|1\hfill \\ \hfill \widehat{\rho }_\stackrel{}{t}(\varphi _i(0,y))& =\varphi _i(0,\rho (|t_i|^{1/4}|y|)y)\mathrm{if}|t|^{1/2}|y|1.\hfill \end{array}$$

To compare $`u_\stackrel{}{t}`$ with $`w_\stackrel{}{t}`$, define $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_\stackrel{}{t}`$ to be the union of the circles (or points)

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }_i=\psi _i(\{(x,y)\text{C}^2xy=t_i\mathrm{and}|x|=|y|=|t_i|^{1/2})\},$$

and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_\stackrel{}{t}`$ the union of the $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_i`$. Let $`\pi _\stackrel{}{t}:\mathrm{\Sigma }_\stackrel{}{t}\mathrm{\Gamma }_\stackrel{}{t}\mathrm{\Sigma }_0`$ be the map which is the identity on $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_\stackrel{}{t}𝒜_\stackrel{}{t}`$, and satisfies

$$\pi _\stackrel{}{t}\psi _i(x,y)=\varphi _i(x,0)\mathrm{or}\varphi _i(0,y)$$

depending whether $`|x|>|y|`$ or $`|x|<|y|`$. It is a biholomorphism onto its image $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_0𝒟_\stackrel{}{t}`$. Then we have

$$w_\stackrel{}{t}=\{\begin{array}{cc}& u_\stackrel{}{t}\pi _\stackrel{}{t}\mathrm{on}\mathrm{\Sigma }_\stackrel{}{t}\mathrm{\Gamma }_\stackrel{}{t}\hfill \\ & \varphi _i(0,0)\mathrm{on}\mathrm{\Gamma }_i\hfill \end{array}$$

Replacing $`w_\stackrel{}{t}`$ by $`u_\stackrel{}{t}`$ in the definition of $`_\stackrel{}{t}`$, one obtains a map

$$𝒢_\stackrel{}{t}:\mathrm{\Omega }^{0,1}(u_\stackrel{}{t}^{}TV)\mathrm{\Gamma }(u_\stackrel{}{t}^{}TV).$$

We have $`𝒢_\stackrel{}{0}=_\stackrel{}{0}`$, thus $`d𝒢_\stackrel{}{0}(0,0)=d_\stackrel{}{0}(0,0)`$ is onto. It is easy to see that $`u_\stackrel{}{t}`$ converges to $`f_0`$ in the $`L_1^p`$ topology as $`\stackrel{}{t}\stackrel{}{0}`$. Thus $`d𝒢_\stackrel{}{t}(0,0)`$ has a right inverse $`\stackrel{~}{R}_\stackrel{}{t}`$ for $`|\stackrel{}{t}|`$ small enough, which is uniformly bounded and is continuous in $`\stackrel{}{t}`$. The operator $`Q_\stackrel{}{t}`$ is defined as the composition of the three following maps:

$$\begin{array}{cccccc}& \pi _{\stackrel{}{t}}^{}{}_{}{}^{1}0& & \stackrel{~}{R}_\stackrel{}{t}& & \mathrm{Id}\times E_\stackrel{}{t}\\ \mathrm{\Omega }^{0,1}(w_\stackrel{}{t}^{}TV)& & \mathrm{\Omega }^{0,1}(u_\stackrel{}{t}^{}TV)& & H\times \mathrm{\Gamma }(u_\stackrel{}{t}^{}TV)& & H\times \mathrm{\Gamma }(w_\stackrel{}{t}^{}TV)\end{array}$$

The first map is $`\pi _{\stackrel{}{t}}^{}{}_{}{}^{1}`$ followed by the extension by zero from $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_0𝒟_\stackrel{}{t}`$ to $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_0`$. The operator $`E_\stackrel{}{t}`$ is defined by

$$(E_\stackrel{}{t}\xi )(z)=\{\begin{array}{ccc}& \xi (z)& \mathrm{if}z𝒜_\stackrel{}{t}\\ & \xi (\varphi _i(x,0))+\beta _{|t_i|}(x)\left(\xi (\varphi _i(0,y))\xi (z_i)\right)& \mathrm{if}z=\psi _i(x,y),|x||y|\\ & \xi (\varphi _i(0,y))+\beta _{|t_i|}(y)\left(\xi (\varphi _i(x,0))\xi (z_i)\right)& \mathrm{if}z=\psi _i(x,y),|y||x|.\end{array}$$

Here $`\beta _\delta (z)=\rho (\frac{4\mathrm{log}|z|}{\mathrm{log}\delta }),`$ where $`\rho :\text{R}[0,1]`$ is the preceding cutoff function, satisfying $`\rho (s)=0`$ for $`s1`$, $`\rho (s)=1`$ for $`s2`$. One easily shows the following properties:

$$\begin{array}{c}\text{ }\beta _\delta (z)=1\mathrm{for}|z|\delta ^{1/2},\beta _\delta (z)=0\mathrm{for}|z|\delta ^{1/4}\text{ }\hfill \\ \text{ }_\text{C}|(\beta _\delta (z))|^p|z|^{p2}𝑑\sigma _z=o(1)\mathrm{for}\delta 0.\text{ }\hfill \end{array}$$

Note that the cutoff takes place at points $`\psi _i(x,y)`$ with $`|t_i|^{1/2}|x|,|y||t_i|^{1/4}`$, where $`w_\stackrel{}{t}`$ is equal to the constant $`f_0\varphi _i(0,0)`$. Clearly, $`E_\stackrel{}{t}`$ is uniformly bounded for $`\stackrel{}{t}\stackrel{}{0}`$, and thus the same is true for $`Q_\stackrel{}{t}`$ .

Lemma. One has the estimate

$$D_{w_\stackrel{}{t}}(E_\stackrel{}{t}\xi )D_{u_\stackrel{}{t}}\xi _{L^p}=o(\xi _{L_1^p}),\stackrel{}{t}\stackrel{}{0}.$$

Proof. We need to estimate

$$\alpha =D_{w_\stackrel{}{t}}(E_\stackrel{}{t}\xi )D_{u_\stackrel{}{t}}\xi .$$

This form vanishes except at points $`z=\psi _i(x,y)`$ with $`|x|,|y||t_i|^{1/4}`$. We can assume $`|x||y|`$, thus $`|t_i|^{1/2}|x||t_i|^{1/4}`$. Since $`w_\stackrel{}{t}(z)=u_\stackrel{}{t}(\varphi _i(x,0))=v_i`$, $`D_{w_\stackrel{}{t}}`$ and $`D_{u_\stackrel{}{t}}`$ are both equal to the usual $`\overline{}`$-operator for maps into the complex vector space $`T_{v_i}V`$, thus

$$\alpha _z=\overline{}(E_\stackrel{}{t}\xi )(\psi _i(z))\overline{}\xi (\varphi _i(x,0)).$$

Also, $`\overline{}\xi (0,y)=\pi _\stackrel{}{t}^1\eta (0,y)=0`$ since $`|y||t_i|^{1/2}`$, thus

$$\alpha _z=\overline{}\left(\beta _{|t_i|}(x)\right).\left(\xi (\varphi _i(0,t_ix^1))\xi (z_i)\right).$$

Since the metric on $`A_{t_i}`$ is here equivalent to $`|dx|^2`$, we can work in the coordinate $`x`$. Using the inequality $`|t_ix^1||x|`$ and the continuous injection $`L_1^p𝒞^{12/p}`$, we have the pointwise estimate

$$|\alpha _z|\mathrm{const}.\xi _{L_1^p}.|\overline{}\left(\beta _{|t_i|^{1/4}}(x)\right)|.|x|^{12/p}$$

Thanks to the integral inequality on $`\beta _\delta `$, we obtain the lemma. We can now prove the quasi-inverse property. Let $`\alpha =D_\stackrel{}{t}Q_\stackrel{}{t}(\eta )\eta `$ for a given $`\eta \mathrm{\Omega }^{0,1}(w_\stackrel{}{t}^{}TV)`$. Setting $`(v,\xi )=\stackrel{~}{R}_\stackrel{}{t}\pi _\stackrel{}{t}^1(\eta )`$, we have $`\alpha _z=df_0.v+D_{w_\stackrel{}{t}}(E_\stackrel{}{t}\xi )`$ with $`df_0.v+D_{u_\stackrel{}{t}}\xi =0`$. Thus $`\alpha =D_{w_\stackrel{}{t}}(E_\stackrel{}{t}\xi )D_{u_\stackrel{}{t}}\xi `$, and the lemma gives $`\alpha _{L^p}=o(\xi _{L_1^p})`$ as $`\stackrel{}{t}\stackrel{}{0}`$. Since $`\xi _{L_1^p}=O(\eta _{L^p})`$, this proves $`D_\stackrel{}{t}Q_\stackrel{}{t}\mathrm{Id}=o(1)`$ as $`\stackrel{}{t}\stackrel{}{0}`$.

3.6. Isomorphism from $`\mathrm{ker}D_\stackrel{}{t}`$ to $`\mathrm{ker}D_\stackrel{}{0}`$ Proposition. Let $`\chi _\stackrel{}{t}:H^1(T\mathrm{\Sigma }_0)\times \mathrm{\Gamma }(w_\stackrel{}{t}^{}TV)\mathrm{ker}D_\stackrel{}{0}`$ be defined by sending $`(v,\xi )`$ to $`(v_0,\xi _0)`$ which minimizes

$$|v_0v|^2+_{\mathrm{\Sigma }_0𝒰_1}|\xi _0\xi |^2𝑑\sigma .$$

Then the restriction of $`\chi _\stackrel{}{t}`$ to $`\mathrm{ker}D_\stackrel{}{t}`$ is a linear isomorphism for $`|\stackrel{}{t}|`$ small enough, and moreover there is a uniform estimate

$$\chi _\stackrel{}{t}(v,\xi )_{L^2}C^1(v,\xi )_{L_1^p}.$$

Proof. Arguing by contradiction, assume that there exists $`\stackrel{}{t}_n\stackrel{}{0}`$ and $`(v_n,\xi _n)\mathrm{ker}D_{\stackrel{}{t}_n}`$ such that $`(v_n,\xi _n)_{L_1^p}=1`$ and $`\chi _{\stackrel{}{t}_n}(v_n,\xi _n)_{L^2}=o(1)`$. Denote $`\chi _{\stackrel{}{t}_n}(v_n,\xi _n)=(v_n^{},\xi _n^{})`$. By definition, $`(v_nv_n^{},\xi _n\xi _n^{})`$ is orthogonal to $`\mathrm{ker}D_{\stackrel{}{t}_n}`$ on $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_0𝒰_1`$.

There is a subsequence $`(v_n,\xi _n)`$ which converges away from the nodes to $`(v,\xi )\mathrm{ker}D_\stackrel{}{0}`$. Since $`(v_n^{},\xi _n^{})`$ converges to $`0`$ in $`L^2(\mathrm{\Sigma }_0𝒰_1)`$, $`(v,\xi )`$ is orthogonal to $`\mathrm{ker}D_\stackrel{}{0}`$ on $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_0𝒰_1`$, thus $`(v,\xi )=(0,0)`$. This implies that $`|v_n|=o(1)`$ and $`\xi _n0`$ away from the nodes, uniformly in the $`𝒞^{\mathrm{}}`$ topology. Also $`D_{w_{\stackrel{}{t}_n}}\xi _n=0`$ on each annulus $`A_{t_{n,i}}`$.

On each annulus $`A_t=A_{t_{n,i}}`$ this equation takes the form

$$\overline{}\xi +q(w).\xi +(dq(w).\xi ).w=0$$

with $`q_L^{\mathrm{}}`$ and $`dq_L^{\mathrm{}}`$ are arbitrarily small. Also, $`w_L^{\mathrm{}}`$ and $`dw_L^{\mathrm{}}`$ are bounded, and is $`\xi `$ is arbitrarily $`𝒞^{\mathrm{}}`$ small away from $`(0,0)`$. In particular $`\xi _{|A_{t_i}}_L^{\mathrm{}}`$ is arbitrarily small. We shall get a contradiction via the lemma in 3.3, provided we can prove a “weak maximum principle”, namely the inequality

$$\xi _L^{\mathrm{}}C\xi _{|A_{t_i}}_L^{\mathrm{}}.$$

To this effect, we set $`\stackrel{~}{\xi }=\xi +q(w).\xi `$ (compare \[Sik2\], proof of Proposition 1). We have

$$\overline{}\stackrel{~}{\xi }=(\overline{}(q(w)).\xi (dq(w).\xi ).w=A.\stackrel{~}{\xi },$$

where $`A`$ is complex-linear and is $`o(1)`$ in the $`L^{\mathrm{}}`$-norm. As in \[Sik2\], the fact that $`P_t`$ is onto with a bounded right-inverse $`L^pL_1^p`$ gives a solution $`\mathrm{\Phi }:A_t\mathrm{G}\mathrm{}(\text{C}^n)`$ of the resolvant equation $`\overline{}\mathrm{\Phi }=A.\mathrm{\Phi }`$. This solution lives in $`L_1^p`$ and satisfies $`\mathrm{max}(\mathrm{\Phi }_L^{\mathrm{}},\mathrm{\Phi }^1_L^{\mathrm{}})2`$ for $`A_L^{\mathrm{}}`$ small enough. Then writing $`\stackrel{~}{\xi }=\mathrm{\Phi }.h`$, we have that $`h`$ is holomorphic, thus $`h`$ satisfies the usual maximum principle on $`A_t`$. Thus the weak maximum principle is satisfied with $`C=4`$, which finishes the proof of the proposition.

3.7. End of the proof of Theorem 1

We have proved that the map

$$_\stackrel{}{t}:H^1(T\mathrm{\Sigma }_0)\times \mathrm{\Gamma }(w_\stackrel{}{t}^{}TV\mathrm{rel}\stackrel{}{p}_0)\mathrm{\Omega }^{0,1}(w_\stackrel{}{t}^{}TV),$$

defined for $`|\stackrel{}{t}|<1`$ on the ball $`\{|(v,\xi )|<ϵ_0\}`$, has the following properties:

$$\{\begin{array}{cc}& _\stackrel{}{t}\text{is of class}𝒞^2\mathrm{and}_\stackrel{}{t}_{𝒞^2}C_1\hfill \\ & |_\stackrel{}{t}(0,0)|C_2|t|^{1/2p}\hfill \\ & \mathrm{for}|\stackrel{}{t}|<ϵ_1,D_\stackrel{}{0}\text{has a right inverse}R_\stackrel{}{t}\text{such that}|R_\stackrel{}{t}|C_3.\hfill \end{array}$$

Denote

$$K_\stackrel{}{t}=\mathrm{ker}D_\stackrel{}{0},K_\stackrel{}{t}(ϵ)=\{(v,\xi )K_\stackrel{}{t}|(v,\xi )|<\epsilon \}.$$

By the implicit function theorem, we obtain a map

$$\mathrm{\Psi }_\stackrel{}{t}=(\nu _\stackrel{}{t},\mathrm{\Phi }_\stackrel{}{t}):K_\stackrel{}{t}(ϵ)H^1(T\mathrm{\Sigma }_0)\times \mathrm{\Gamma }(w_\stackrel{}{t}^{}TV\mathrm{rel}\stackrel{}{p}_0)$$

defined for $`|\stackrel{}{t}|`$ and $`ϵ`$ small enough, with the following property. If we set

$$f_{\stackrel{}{t},v,\xi }=\mathrm{exp}_{w_\stackrel{}{t}}(\mathrm{\Phi }_\stackrel{}{t}(v,\xi )):\mathrm{\Sigma }_\stackrel{}{t}V,$$

then

$$\{\begin{array}{cc}& f_{\stackrel{}{t},v,\xi }is(j_{\stackrel{}{t},\nu _\stackrel{}{t}(\stackrel{}{t},v)},J)\text{-holomorphic on}\mathrm{\Sigma }_\stackrel{}{t}\hfill \\ & f_{\stackrel{}{t},v,\xi }(p_{0,j})H_j(i)\hfill \\ & \mathrm{dist}(f_{\stackrel{}{t},v,\xi },w_\stackrel{}{t})<\epsilon .\hfill \end{array}$$

Thus $`[\mathrm{\Sigma }_{\stackrel{}{t},\nu _\stackrel{}{t}(v,\xi )},f_{\stackrel{}{t},v,\xi }]`$ is an element of the neigbourhood $`𝒩_ϵ`$ of $`[\mathrm{\Sigma }_0,f_0]`$

Conversely, paragraph 3.3 and the uniqueness in the implicit function theorem imply that, for some $`ϵ_1<ϵ`$ and for every $`\stackrel{}{t}`$ such that $`|\stackrel{}{t}|<ϵ_1`$, the following property holds: for every map $`h`$ defined on $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_\stackrel{}{t}`$

$$\{\begin{array}{cc}& h\mathrm{is}(j_v^{},J)\text{-holomorphic on}\mathrm{\Sigma }_\stackrel{}{t}\hfill \\ & h(p_{0,j})H_j(i)\hfill \\ & \mathrm{dist}(h,w_\stackrel{}{t})<ϵ_1\hfill \end{array}$$

there exists $`(v,\xi )K_\stackrel{}{t}(ϵ)`$ such that $`h=f_{\stackrel{}{t},v,\xi }`$ and $`v^{}=\nu _\stackrel{}{t}(v,\xi )`$.

Let us now define $`\varphi _J:𝒩\text{C}^m\times \frac{\mathrm{ker}D_\stackrel{}{0}}{\mathrm{Aut}(\mathrm{\Sigma }_0,f_0)}`$. We start with $`\mathrm{\Phi }(C)=(\stackrel{}{t},[(v,f)])`$. We write $`f=\mathrm{exp}_{w_\stackrel{}{t}}\xi `$, and we project $`(v,\xi )`$ orthogonally on $`(v_0,\xi _0)\mathrm{ker}D_\stackrel{}{0}`$, ie $`(v_0,\xi _0)=\chi _\stackrel{}{t}.(v,\xi ).`$ This is well defined up to the action of $`\mathrm{Aut}(\mathrm{\Sigma }_0,f_0)`$. Then we set

$$\varphi _J(C)=(\stackrel{}{t},[v_0,\xi _0]).$$

This is clearly continuous, there remains to see that it is locally bijective.

This finishes the proof of Theorem 1 for $`J`$ fixed. When $`J`$ varies, it suffices to apply the parametric version of the implicit function theorem.

4. Normal genericity and the normal $`\overline{}`$-operator in dimension $`4`$

In this section we define the operator $`D^{N_0}`$ presented in the Introduction. It has been defined by \[IS\] for all curves parameterized by a smooth surface $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_0`$, we shall need to extend the definition when $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_0`$ has nodes. We shall do it only in dimension $`4`$, since in higher dimension there are some complications and anyway it is probably not very useful. Thus we assume in this section that $`(V,J)`$ is a $`4`$-dimensional almost-complex manifold. 4.1. The operator $`D^{N_0}`$ Let $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_0`$ be a nodal Riemann surface, and let $`f_0:\mathrm{\Sigma }_0V`$ be a $`J`$-holomorphic map, with no constant component. 1) If $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_0`$ is smooth, following \[IS\] one defines the line bundle $`N_0=f_0^{}TV/\overline{df_0(T\mathrm{\Sigma }_0)}`$, and $`D^{N_0}:\mathrm{\Gamma }(N_0)\mathrm{\Omega }^{0,1}(N_0)`$ is induced by $`D_{f_0}`$. It is proved in \[IS\] (paragraphs 1.3 and 1.5, see also 5\[B\], paragraph 1.1) that $`D^{N_0}`$ is an operator of type $`\overline{}+a`$ defined from $`L_1^p`$ sections to $`L^p`$ forms, and that one has an exact diagram

$$\begin{array}{ccccccc}0& \mathrm{\Gamma }(T\mathrm{\Sigma }_0L)& & \mathrm{\Gamma }(f_0^{}TV)& & \mathrm{\Gamma }(N_0)& 0\\ & \overline{}& & D_{f_0}& & D^{N_0}\\ 0& \mathrm{\Omega }^{0,1}(T\mathrm{\Sigma }_0L)& & \mathrm{\Omega }^{0,1}(f_0^{}TV)& & \mathrm{\Omega }^{0,1}(N_0)& 0\end{array}$$
$`(4.1)`$
Here $`L=L(df_0^1(0))`$ is the divisor of zeros of $`df_0`$, counted with multiplicities. In particular, if $`f_0`$ is an immersion:

$$\begin{array}{ccccccc}0& \mathrm{\Gamma }(T\mathrm{\Sigma }_0)& & \mathrm{\Gamma }(f_0^{}TV)& & \mathrm{\Gamma }(N_0)& 0\\ & \overline{}& & D_{f_0}& & D^{N_0}\\ 0& \mathrm{\Omega }^{0,1}(T\mathrm{\Sigma }_0)& & \mathrm{\Omega }^{0,1}(f_0^{}TV)& & \mathrm{\Omega }^{0,1}(N_0)& 0\end{array}.$$

2) If $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_0`$ has nodes, we make the following assumption:

(\*) $`f_0`$ is an embedding near each node, with distinct tangents. Consider the normalization $`\nu :\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Sigma }}_0\mathrm{\Sigma }_0`$ and the induced map $`\stackrel{~}{f}_0=f_0\nu `$. One can associate as in 1) the normal bundle $`\stackrel{~}{N}_0`$ over $`\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Sigma }}_0=_{i=1}^r\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Sigma }}_i`$ and the operator $`D^{\stackrel{~}{N}_0}`$. By definition, we set $`N_0=\stackrel{~}{N}_0`$ and $`D^{N_0}=D^{\stackrel{~}{N}_0}`$. Let us prove that the diagram (4.1) “over $`\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Sigma }}_0`$” remains exact “over $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_0`$”. Only the first line is changed: $`\mathrm{\Gamma }(T\mathrm{\Sigma }_0L)`$ (resp. $`\mathrm{\Gamma }(f_0^{}TV)`$) can be identified with elements of $`\mathrm{\Gamma }(\stackrel{~}{T}\mathrm{\Sigma }_0L)`$ (resp. $`\mathrm{\Gamma }(\stackrel{~}{f}_0^{}TV)`$) vanishing on the inverse images $`z^+`$ and $`z^{}`$ of any node (resp. having the same value on $`z^+`$ and $`z^{}`$).

The problem is to prove that $`\mathrm{\Gamma }(f_0^{}TV)\mathrm{\Gamma }(N_0)`$ is still onto. This follows immediately from the fact that, for each double point $`v=\stackrel{~}{f}_0(z^+)=\stackrel{~}{f}_0(z^{})`$, the natural map

$$T_vV\frac{T_vV}{d\stackrel{~}{f}_0(T_{z^+})}\frac{TvV}{d\stackrel{~}{f}_0(T_z^{})}$$

is onto by the assumption (\*). Remark. This is where we use the dimension $`4`$: in higher dimension, we would have to restrict $`D^{\stackrel{~}{N}_0}`$ to some suitable subspace of $`\mathrm{\Gamma }(\stackrel{~}{N}_0)`$.

4.2. Index computation Using the exact diagram (4.1) and the index formula for $`D_{f_0}`$ p.2, one gets the following result.

Proposition. One has

$$\mathrm{ind}(D^{N_0})=c_1(TV),A+g1m|df_0^1(0)|.$$

Other proof: applying Riemann-Roch separately to each component, one has $`\mathrm{ind}(D^{N_0})=`$ $`_i(c_1(\stackrel{~}{N}_i)+1g_i)`$. The short exact sequence $`T\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Sigma }}_i\stackrel{~}{f}_0^{}TV\stackrel{~}{N}_i`$ gives

$$c_1(\stackrel{~}{N}_i)=c_1(TV),A_i2(1g_i)|df_i^1(0)|.$$

Using the fact that $`(1g_i)=1g+m`$, we get the proposition. Remark. Note that $`c_1(TV),A+g1=i(A,g)`$.

4.3. Normal genericity and surjectivity of $`D^{N_0}`$ Let $`f_0:\mathrm{\Sigma }_0V`$ be a $`J`$-holomorphic map such that $`D^{N_0}`$ can be defined. Then the exact diagram (4.1) implies the isomorphism

$$\frac{\mathrm{\Omega }^{0,1}(f_0^{}TV)}{df_0(\mathrm{\Omega }^{0,1}(T\mathrm{\Sigma }_0L)D_{f_0}(\mathrm{\Gamma }(f_0^{}TV))}\mathrm{coker}D^{N_0}.$$

Since $`\stackrel{~}{D}_{f_0}=\frac{1}{2}Jdf_0D_{f_0}`$ and $`Jdf_0=df_0j_0`$, one has

$$\mathrm{coker}\stackrel{~}{D}_{f_0}=\frac{\mathrm{\Omega }^{0,1}(f_0^{}TV)}{df_0(\mathrm{\Omega }^{0,1}(T\mathrm{\Sigma }_0))D_{f_0}(\mathrm{\Gamma }(f_0^{}TV))}.$$

Since $`\mathrm{\Omega }^{0,1}(T\mathrm{\Sigma }_0)\mathrm{\Omega }^{0,1}(T\mathrm{\Sigma }_0L)`$, there is a natural embedding from $`\mathrm{coker}D^{N_0}`$ to $`\mathrm{coker}\stackrel{~}{D}_{f_0}`$. Furthermore, the induced map $`H^{0,1}(T\mathrm{\Sigma }_0)\mathrm{\Omega }^{0,1}(T\mathrm{\Sigma }_0L)`$ is onto, thus if $`\alpha \mathrm{\Omega }^{0,1}(T\mathrm{\Sigma }_0L)`$ there exist $`\beta \mathrm{\Omega }^{0,1}(T\mathrm{\Sigma }_0)`$ and $`\xi \mathrm{\Gamma }(T\mathrm{\Sigma }_0L)`$ with $`\alpha =\beta +\overline{}\xi `$, so that $`df_0(\alpha )=df_0(\beta )+D_{f_0}df_0(\xi )`$ belongs to $`\mathrm{im}\stackrel{~}{D}_{f_0}`$. Thus $`\mathrm{coker}D^{N_0}=\mathrm{coker}\stackrel{~}{D}_{f_0}`$, thus normal genericity is equivalent to the surjectivity of $`D^{N_0}`$.

5. The case of dimension $`4`$

5.1. Adjunction formula The most important special property for $`J`$-curves in dimension $`4`$ is the “positivity of intersections” and in particular its corollary the “adjunction formula” (cf. \[McD\], \[MW\], \[Sik2\]). We state here a version allowing the source of the curves to have nodes. Proposition. Let $`f:\mathrm{\Sigma }(V^4,J)`$ be a simple $`J`$-holomorphic map, where $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ is a connected Riemann surface with $`m`$ nodes. Then to each singularity $`s`$ of the image $`S=f(\mathrm{\Sigma })`$ one can associate a strictly positive integer $`\delta (s)`$, with the property that

$$\underset{s\mathrm{Sing}(S)}{}\delta (s)m=g_a(A)g_a(\mathrm{\Sigma }).$$

Here $`g_a(A)`$ is the arithmetic genus of $`A`$, which is equal to $`\frac{1}{2}(A.Ac_1(TV),A)+1`$.  Note that each node $`z`$ contributes at least $`1`$ to the sum on the left, and exactly $`1`$ if and only if it is embedded with distinct tangents and $`f^1(f(z))=\{z\}`$.

5.2. Nodal curves Let $`(V,J)`$ be an almost complex manifold of dimension $`4`$. We say that a $`J`$-holomorphic curve $`C_0=[\mathrm{\Sigma }_0,f_0]`$ is nodal if $`f_0`$ is an embedding. By 5.1, the arithmetic genera $`g_a(\mathrm{\Sigma })`$ and $`g_a(A)`$ coincide, where $`A=f_{}(\mathrm{\Sigma })`$.

The image $`f_0(\mathrm{\Sigma }_0)=S`$ is then a closed immersed real surface whose singularities are ordinary double points (or nodes), and whose tangent bundle is $`J`$-invariant: $`JTC_0=TC_0.`$ Conversely, using the integrability of almost complex structures on surfaces, such a surface is of the form $`S=f_0(\mathrm{\Sigma }_0)`$, where $`[\mathrm{\Sigma }_0,f_0]`$ is nodal. Moreover, the pair $`(\mathrm{\Sigma }_0,f_0)`$ is determined by $`S`$ up to isomorphism, and thus $`S`$ determines a stable curve $`[\mathrm{\Sigma }_0,f_0]`$ in $`\overline{}_g(V,J,A)`$ where $`A=[S]`$ and $`g=g_a(A)`$. Note that

$$i(A,g_a(A))=c_1(TV,A)+g1=\frac{1}{2}(A.A+c_1(TV),A).$$

We shall denote this number by $`d(A)`$. Note that

$$\mathrm{ind}D^{N_0}=\underset{i}{}\mathrm{ind}D^{N_i}=\underset{i}{}i(A_i,g_i)=c_1(TV),A+g1m.$$

If $`f_0`$ is an embedding, this is also $`\frac{1}{2}(A.A+c_1(TV),A)m`$.

Proposition. If $`\mathrm{dim}(V)=4`$ and $`[\mathrm{\Sigma }_0,f_0]`$ is a $`J`$-holomorphic embedding, then every simple $`J`$-curve $`[\mathrm{\Sigma },f]`$ in $`\overline{}_g(V,J,A)`$ is also an embedding. In particular, this applies to every curve sufficiently close to $`[\mathrm{\Sigma }_0,f_0]`$.

Remark. Presumably, the same result holds in all dimensions, but I do not know how to prove it in the nonintegrable case. Proof. The adjunction formula above implies that

$$\underset{s\mathrm{Sing}(f(\mathrm{\Sigma }))}{}=\mathrm{\#}(\text{nodes of }\mathrm{\Sigma }).$$

Thus necessarily each node is embedded, and there is no other singularity on $`C`$ which means that $`f`$ is an embedding.

5.3. Automatic regularity Another aspect of the positivity of intersections is the “automatic regularity” of spaces of $`J`$-curves under homotopic conditions \[G, 2.1.C1\] (cf. also \[HLS\]). We begin by recalling the linear version.

Proposition. Let $`L`$ be a complex line bundle over a smooth Rieman, surface of genus $`g`$, equipped with an operator $`D:\mathrm{\Gamma }(L)\mathrm{\Omega }^{0,1}(L)`$ of the type $`\overline{}+a`$. Then $`D`$ is onto provide $`c_1(L)>2g2`$.  Now let $`f_0:\mathrm{\Sigma }_0(V^4,J)`$ be a $`J`$-holomorphic map defined on a smooth surface of genus $`g`$. When applying the proposition to $`L=N_0`$, the condition $`c_1(L)>2g2`$ becomes $`c_1(TV),A>0`$ if $`f_0`$ is an immersion, and $`c_1(f_0^{}TV),\mathrm{\Sigma }_i>|df_0^1(0)|`$ if $`f_0`$ is nonconstant \[IS\]. More generally, assume that $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_0`$ is nodal, with components $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_1,\mathrm{},\mathrm{\Sigma }_r`$, and $`f_0`$ is an embedding with distinct tangents near each node. Then $`D^{N_0}`$ is isomorphic to the product of the $`D^{\stackrel{~}{N}_i}`$. Using the formula for $`C_1(\stackrel{~}{N}_i)`$ in 4.2, we get the

Proposition 1. Assume that $`\mathrm{dim}(V)=4`$, $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_0=_i\mathrm{\Sigma }_i`$ is nodal of genus $`g`$ with $`m`$ nodes, that $`f_0`$ is an embedding near the nodes and has no constant component, and

$$c_1(f_i^{}TV),\mathrm{\Sigma }_i>|df_0^1(0)|i=1,\mathrm{},r.$$

Then $`D^{N_0}`$ is onto.

Remark. The existence of a $`J`$-holomorphic curve such that $`c_1(TV),C_0>0`$ and $`C_0`$ is not exceptional on a closed almost complex $`4`$-dimensional manifold tamed by a symplectic structure $`\omega `$ is quite restrictive: by a theorem of Li and Liu \[LL\], this implies that $`(V,\omega )`$ is rational or ruled.

6. Fixing points The results that we have obtained can be generalized to curves containing a given finite subset $`F`$ in the smooth part. At the linearized level, it means studying the restriction of $`D^{N_0}`$ to the subspace of sections of $`N_0`$ which vanish on $`\stackrel{~}{F}`$.

The way to do this is explained in \[B\], Lemma 4. One replaces $`N_0`$ by $`N_0L(F)`$, where $`L(F)`$ is the bundle associated to the divisor $`F`$ on $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_0`$. Then $`D^{N_0}`$ induces an operator

$$D_F^{N_0}:L_1^p\mathrm{\Gamma }(N_0L(F))L^p\mathrm{\Omega }^{0,1}(N_0L(F)).$$

The regularity $`(L_1^p,L^p)`$ is essential since $`D_F^{N_0}`$ contains terms of the type $`\frac{\overline{z}}{z}`$ in a local coordinate near any point of $`F`$. Actually, one does this for the restriction $`N_i`$ of $`N_0`$ to each component of $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_0`$, obtaining

$$D_{F_i}^{N_i}:L_1^p\mathrm{\Gamma }(N_iL(F_i))L^p\mathrm{\Omega }^{0,1}(N_iL(F_i)).$$

The Chern class is diminished by $`|F_i|`$, thus we get Proposition 2. Under the hypotheses of Proposition 1, let $`F\mathrm{\Sigma }_0`$ be a finite subset such that

$$|F_i|+|df_i^1(0)|<c_1(f_i^{}TV),\mathrm{\Sigma }_ii=1,\mathrm{},r.$$

Then $`D_F^{N_0}`$ is onto.

Combining this with Theorem 1’, we get Corollary 2.

7. $`J`$-curves and symplectic surfaces in dimension $`4`$ In this section we assume that $`(V,\omega )`$ is a compact symplectic $`4`$-manifold, so that there is a non-empty and contractible subspace $`𝒥_\omega (V)𝒥(V)`$ of $`\omega `$-positive almost complex structures. We study the isotopy problem for symplectic surfaces, in relation with $`J`$-holomorphic curves. Then we restrict to the case $`(V,\omega )=(\text{C}\text{P}^2,\omega _0)`$ and we give explicit sufficient conditions on a $`J`$-curve (resp. a curve and a finite subset) to satisfy the hypotheses of Corollary 1 (resp. Corollary 2). and finally we apply Corollary 2 to the case of surfaces of degree $`3`$.

7.1. The isotopy problem for symplectic surfaces Let $`SV`$ be a symplectic surface, ie a real embedded surface such that $`\omega _{|TS}`$ never vanishes. Such a surface is connected and canonically oriented, and has a homology class $`A`$.

The relation with $`J`$-holomorphic curves is the following fundamental observation of Gromov: $`S`$ is symplectic if and only if there exists an almost complex structure $`J𝒥_\omega (V)`$ such that $`S=f_0(\mathrm{\Sigma }_0)`$ where $`[\mathrm{\Sigma }_0,f_0]`$ is an embedded $`J`$-holomorphic curve. Note that the genus of $`S`$ is

$$g=g_a(A)=\frac{A.Ac_1(TV),A}{2}+1.$$

Let us define

$$\overline{}(V,J,A)=\overline{}_{g(A)}(V,J,A),$$

which we know is a compact space. It contains as an open subset the connected smooth curves:

$$(V,J,A)=_{g(A)}(V,J,A).$$

If $`J`$ is integrable, $`\overline{}(V,J,A)`$ sits over the space $`𝒟(V,A)`$ of divisors in the class $`A`$ (which is an algebraic variety), the projection being a homeomorphism from $`_{g(A)}(V,J,A)`$ to the open subset $`𝒟^s(V,A)`$ of connected smooth curves.

The space $`𝒟^s(V,A)`$ always has a finite number of connected components (which are the same as path-connected components), thus one may hope that $`_{g(A)}(V,J,A)`$ also has a finite number of path-connected components for any fixed $`J𝒥_\omega (V)`$. More daringly, one may hope that it is also true for for the space $`𝒮(V,A)`$ of connected symplectic surfaces in the class $`A`$ (which are necessarily of genus $`g(A)`$). In some cases, as for of $`\text{C}\text{P}^2`$, one may even hope that $`𝒮(V,A)`$ is connected:

Question. Let $`d`$ be a positive integer. Are any two symplectic surfaces of degree $`d`$ in $`\text{C}\text{P}^2`$ symplectically isotopic ?

Equivalently, is every symplectic surface in $`\text{C}\text{P}^2`$ symplectically isotopic to an algebraic curve (necessarily smooth and of the same degree) ?

In general however, it is not true that this is not true that $`𝒮(V,A)`$ has a finite number of path-connected components, as shown recently by R. Fintushel and R. Stern \[FS\]: if $`V`$ is simply-connected and $`𝒮(V,A)`$ contains a torus $`T`$ with zero self-intersection which can degenerate to a rational curve with a cusp, then there are infinitely many tori $`T_n`$ in $`𝒮(V,2A)`$ which are pairwise not differentiably isotopic. In fact, all pairs $`(V,T_n)`$ are differentiably different. Note that the class $`2A`$ satisfies $`c_1(TV),2A=0`$ so that the results of this paper do not apply. This phenomenon is related to the possibility of describing a model of birth of $`J`$-holomorphic curves. The question above has a positive answer for $`d=`$ $`1`$ or $`2`$ by \[G\]. Note that these are the cases where the genus is zero. Also, for $`d=1`$, an embedded sphere is always topologically isotopic to a complex line, and it is an open question whether it is differentiably isotopic. For $`d>1`$, there are many surfaces of degree $`g(d)=\frac{(d1)(d2)}{2}`$, which are already topologically knotted, which makes the above question more interesting. In paragraph 7.3 we shall recall Gromov’s proof for $`d=1`$ and $`2`$, and explain why it does not directlly extend to $`d3`$.

7.2. Hypothetical proof of the isotopy property In this paragraph we give a positive answer to the above question in $`\text{C}\text{P}^2`$, depending on plausible properties of $`J`$-curves. Let $`S\text{C}\text{P}^2`$ be a symplectic surface of degree $`d`$. One can find an almost complex structure $`J𝒥_{\omega _0}`$ such that $`S`$ is $`J`$-holomorphic. Let $`(J_t)`$ be a path in $`𝒥_{\omega _0}`$ from the standard structure to $`J`$. For $`A=d[L]`$, denote

$$\overline{}(t,d)=\overline{}(\text{C}\text{P}^2,J_t,d),(t,d)=(\text{C}\text{P}^2,J_t,d),$$

and denote by $`\overline{}^{\mathrm{sing}}(t,d)`$ the subset of singular curves, ie

$$\overline{}^{\mathrm{sing}}(t,d)=\overline{}(t,d)(t,d).$$

Define also the extended spaces

$$\overline{\text{M}}(d)=\underset{0t1}{}(t,d)\times \{t\}=\text{M}(d)\overline{\text{M}}^{\mathrm{sing}}(d),$$

and let $`\pi :\overline{\text{M}}[0,1]`$ denote the second projection. By Gromov’s compactness theorem and the automatic regularity, we have the following properties. Properties 1) $`\overline{\text{M}}(d)`$ is compact. 2) $`\text{M}(d)`$ is a topological manifold of real dimension $`d(d+3)+1`$, with boundary $`\text{M}(d,0)\text{M}(d,1)`$, and the restriction of $`\pi `$ is a topological submersion. Note that $`\text{M}(d,0)`$ is the connected space of all smooth algebraic curves of degree $`d`$. Ideal situation Assume that $`\overline{\text{M}}^{\mathrm{sing}}(d)`$ never locally disconnects $`\overline{\text{M}}(d)`$, ie each point of $`\overline{\text{M}}^{\mathrm{sing}}(d)`$ admits arbitrarily small neighbourhoods $`U_i`$ in $`\overline{\text{M}}^{\mathrm{sing}}(d)`$ such that $`U_i\text{M}(d)`$ is connected (and thus path-connected). This the case if it has the structure of a subcomplex of real codimension $`2`$, which one can hope would follow from a suitable stratification result.

Under this assumption, the properties 1) and 2) above easily imply the path-connectedness of $`\text{M}(d)`$ and thus the symplectic isotopy of $`S`$ to an algebraic curve. An important generalization of this method arises if we consider curves containing a fixed finite subset $`FS`$ in the image. We define in a similar manner $`\overline{}(t,d;F)`$, $`(t,d;F)`$, $`\overline{}^{sing}(t,d;F)`$, $`\overline{\text{M}}(d;F)`$,… Then Gromov’s compactness theorem and the “automatic genericity” imply the Properties 1’) $`\overline{\text{M}}(d;F)`$ is compact. 2’) If $`|F|<3d1`$, $`\text{M}(d;F)`$ is a topological manifold of real dimension $`d(d+3)+1|F|`$, with boundary $`\text{M}(d,0;F)\text{M}(d,1;F)`$, and the restriction of $`\pi `$ is a topological submersion.

Generalized ideal situation

Assume the following:

(\*) For a suitable choice of $`F`$ and the path $`(J_t)`$, $`\overline{\text{M}}^{\mathrm{sing}}(d;F)`$ never locally disconnects $`\overline{\text{M}}(d)`$. Then again the properties 1’) and 2’) imply the path-connectedness of $`\text{M}(d;F)`$ and thus the symplectic isotopy of $`S`$ to an algebraic curve.

7.3. Curves of degree at most $`3`$ When $`d3`$, the above hypothetical proof actually works. For $`d=1`$ or $`2`$ this is due to Gromov. Degree 1 The key fact is that here there are no singular curves! Thus properties 1) and 2) imply that $`\overline{\text{M}}(1)`$ is a compact $`4`$-dimensional manifold(with a natural smooth structure) with boundary $`\overline{\text{M}}(1,0)\overline{\text{M}}(1,1)`$, and that the projection $`\pi `$ is a submersion of index $`0`$. Thus $`\overline{\text{M}}(1)`$ is diffeomorphic to a product $`\overline{\text{M}}(1,0)\times [0,1]\text{C}\text{P}^2\times [0,1]`$, which gives the desired symplectic isotopy of the symplectic surface to a complex line. Remark.  When one fixes the maximal number $`3d1=2`$ points, one thus obtain the famous result of Gromov that through any $`2`$ distinct points there passes a unique $`J`$-line. Degree $`2`$. Here there are singular curves, which are of two types: a union of two distinct $`J`$-lines, and a double $`J`$-line. The formal complex dimension of the first is $`4`$, and of the second is $`2`$, since actually it is equivalent to the space of simple lines. Note however that as a subspace of $`\overline{}(2,J)`$ it is of complex dimension $`4`$, being the blow up of the space of double lines in $`\text{C}\text{P}^5`$. Thus when we fix the maximal number $`3d1=5`$ points, the maximal complex formal dimension is $`1`$, thus the real dimension is $`2`$. By a classical argument using Sard-Smale (see \[MS\] for details, and also \[B\]), this implies that for a generic choice of $`F`$ and $`(J_t)`$, $`\overline{}^{sing}(d,t)`$ is always empty. Thus we conclude exactly as for degree $`1`$.

Degree $`3`$: proof of Theorem 3 Note that now the genus is $`1`$. Here we cannot fix enough to avoid singular curves: indeed the “stratum” corresponding to rational curves with one double point, has formal complex dimension $`8`$, thus we would need to fix $`9=3d`$ points, spoiling property 1’). Considering curves of degree $`3`$ passing through $`9`$ points is similar to considering curves in $`\text{C}\text{P}^2`$ blown up at $`9`$ points: then $`c_1(A)`$ and $`c_1(N)`$ vanishes, and one can give a model of birth of $`J`$-holomorphic curves. What is more, the examples of Fintushel and Stern show that this can actually lead to an infinite number of isotopy classes. Thus we fix only $`8`$ points. Using the results of \[B\], one can prove that all other strata than the one corresponding to rational curves with one double point have formal complex codimension at most $`7`$, and thus will not occur for a generic choice of $`F`$ and $`(J_t)`$. The crucial case is that of rational curves with one cusp, which has dimension $`7`$ as a space of curves parameterized by $`\text{C}\text{P}^1`$ (although, as a subspace of the space of stable curves of genus $`1`$, it consists of two strata of dimension $`8`$).

Thus if $`F`$ and the path $`(J_t)`$ are chosen generically, , a curve in $`^{\mathrm{sing}}(3,t;F)`$ is rational with a double point, and $`F`$ is contained in its smooth part. Then Corollary 2 applies, thus: i) $`\overline{\text{M}}(3;F)`$ a topological manifold of dimension $`3`$ is a topological manifold, with boundary $`\overline{\text{M}}(3,0;F)\overline{\text{M}}(3,1;F)`$ and the projection to $`[0,1]`$ is a submersion. ii) $`\overline{\text{M}}^{\mathrm{sing}}(3;F)`$ is a $`1`$-dimensional locally flat submersion. Thus the non-disconnecting property (\*) is again satisfied, which implies Theorem 3.

Comments We have not been able to extend this method above degree $`3`$: already in degree $`4`$, one cannot avoid curves with a cusp, which as stable curves include a constant component which usually forbids the normal genericity.

References

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Jean-Claude Sikorav

ENS Lyon, UMPA (UMR CNRS 5669)

46, allée d’Italie

F-69364 Lyon cedex 07, FRANCE

sikorav@umpa.ens-lyon.fr