On the asphericity of a symplectic M3 x S1

An interesting question in symplectic topology, which was posed by C. H. Taubes, concerns the topology of closed (i.e. compact and without boundary) connected oriented three dimensional manifolds whose product with a circle admits a symplectic structure. The only known examples of such manifolds are those which fiber over a circle. Taubes asked whether these examples are the only examples of such manifolds. An affirmative answer to Taubes' question would have the following consequence: any such manifold either is diffeomorphic to the product of a two-sphere with a circle or is irreducible and aspherical. In this paper, we prove that this implication holds up to connect sum with a manifold which admits no proper covering spaces with finite index. It is pointed out that Thurston's geometrization conjecture and known results in the theory of three dimensional manifolds imply that such a manifold is a three-dimensional sphere. Hence, modulo the present conjectural picture of three-dimensional manifolds, we have shown that the stated consequence of an affirmative answer to Taubes' question holds.