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We study the interactions between toric manifolds and Weinstein handlebodies. We define a partially-centeredness condition on a Delzant polytope, which we prove ensures that the complement of a corresponding partial smoothing of the total toric divisor supports an explicit Weinstein structure. Many examples which fail this condition also fail to have Weinstein (or even exact) complement to the partially smoothed divisor. We investigate the combinatorial possibilities of Delzant polytopes that realize such Weinstein domain complements. We also develop an algorithm to construct a Weinstein handlebody diagram in Gompf standard form for the complement of such a partially smoothed total toric divisor. The algorithm we develop more generally outputs a Weinstein handlebody diagram for any Weinstein 4-manifold constructed by attaching 2-handles to the disk cotangent bundle of any surface  $F$, where the 2-handles are attached along the co-oriented conormal lifts of curves on  $F$. We discuss how to use these diagrams to calculate invariants and provide numerous examples applying this procedure. For example, we provide Weinstein handlebody diagrams for the complements of the smooth and nodal cubics in $\mathbb{C}{\mathbb{P}}^2$. 

A symplectic rational cuspidal curve with positive self-intersection number admits a concave neighborhood, and thus a corresponding contact manifold on the boundary. In this article, we study symplectic fillings of such contact manifolds, providing a complementary perspective to our earlier article on symplectic isotopy classes of rational cuspidal curves. We explore aspects of these symplectic fillings through Stein handlebodies and rational blow-downs. We give examples of such contact manifolds which are identifiable as links of normal surface singularities, other examples which admit no symplectic fillings, and further examples where the fillings can be fully classified. 

We introduce a new decomposition of Weinstein 4-manifolds called multisections with divides and show these can be encoded diagrammatically by a sequence of cut systems on a surface, together with a separating collection of curves. We give two algorithms to construct a multisection with divides for a Weinstein 4-manifold, one starting with a Kirby-Weinstein handle decomposition and the other starting with a positive, allowable Lefschetz fibration (PALF). Through the connections with PALFs, we define a monodromy of a multisection and show how to symplectically carry out monodromy substitution on multisections with divides. 

We define a suitably tame class of singular symplectic curves in 4-manifolds, namely those whose singularities are modeled on complex curve singularities. We study the corresponding symplectic isotopy problem, with a focus on rational curves with irreducible singularities (rational cuspidal curves) in the complex projective plane. We prove that every such curve is isotopic to a complex curve in degrees up to five, and for curves with one singularity whose link is a torus knot. Classification results of symplectic isotopy classes rely on pseudo-holomorphic curves together with a symplectic version of birational geometry of log pairs and techniques from four-dimensional topology. 

In this article, we provide an introduction to an algorithm for constructing Weinstein handlebodies for complements of certain smoothed toric divisors using explicit coordinates and a simple example. This article also serves to welcome newcomers to Weinstein handlebody diagrams and Weinstein Kirby calculus. Finally, we include several complicated examples at the end of the article to showcase the algorithm and the types of Weinstein Kirby diagrams it produces. 

Abstract A venerable problem in combinatorics and geometry asks whether a given incidence relation may be realized by a configuration of points and lines. The classic version of this would ask for lines in a projective plane over a field. An important variation allows for pseudolines: embedded circles (isotopic to $$\mathbb R\rm{P}^1$$) in the real projective plane. In this article we investigate whether a configuration is realized by a collection of 2-spheres embedded, in symplectic, smooth, and topological categories, in the complex projective plane. We find obstructions to the existence of topologically locally flat spheres realizing a configuration, and show for instance that the combinatorial configuration corresponding to the projective plane over any finite field is not realized. Such obstructions are used to show that a particular contact structure on certain graph manifolds is not (strongly) symplectically fillable. We also show that a configuration of real pseudolines can be complexified to give a configuration of smooth, indeed symplectically embedded, 2-spheres.