Symplectic surfaces and generic J-holomorphic structures on 4-manifolds

Abstract

It is a well known fact that every embedded symplectic surface $\Sigma$ in a symplectic 4-manifold $(X^4,\omega )$ can be made $J$-holomorphic for some almost-complex structure $J$ compatible with $\omega$. In this paper we investigate when such a $J$ can be chosen from a generic set of almost-complex structures. As an application we give examples of smooth and non-empty Seiberg-Witten and Gromov-Witten moduli spaces whose associated invariants are zero.

Minor changes were made upon referee's suggestion. Updated references. To be published in Illinois J. Math