Title:
Sideways-stretching the neck
Abstract: We will discuss some recent Symplectic Field Theory type
compactness results for pseudo-holomorphic curves in the symplectization
of a contact manifold which is stretched along a special hypersurface.
This procedure is called "sideways stretching" and encompasses a variety
of geometric degenerations of contact manifolds like handle attaches along
isotropic submanifolds, and touches on work in sutured contact homology
and Legendrian surgery.