Diffeomorphisms, symplectic forms and Kodaira fibrations

Abstract

As was recently pointed out by McMullen and Taubes [Math. Res. Lett. 6 (1999) 681–696], there are 4–manifolds for which the diffeomorphism group does not act transitively on the deformation classes of orientation-compatible symplectic structures. This note points out some other 4–manifolds with this property which arise as the orientation-reversed versions of certain complex surfaces constructed by Kodaira [J. Analyse Math. 19 (1967) 207–215]. While this construction is arguably simpler than that of McMullen and Taubes, its simplicity comes at a price: the examples exhibited herein all have large fundamental groups.