Coarsely holomorphic curves and symplectic topology

Abstract

A taming symplectic structure provides an upper bound on the area of an approximately pseudoholomorphic curve in terms of its homology class. We prove that, conversely, an almost complex manifold with such an area bound admits a taming symplectic structure. This confirms a speculation by Gromov. We also characterize the cone of taming symplectic structures numerically, prove that complex 2-cycles can be approximated by coarsely holomorphic curves, and provide a lower energy bound for such curves.