Algebraic capacities

We study invariants coming from certain optimisation problems for nef divisors on surfaces. These optimisation problems arise in work of the author and collaborators tying obstructions to embeddings between symplectic 4-manifolds to questions of positivity for (possibly singular) algebraic surfaces. We develop the general framework for these invariants and prove foundational results on their structure and asymptotics. We describe the connections these invariants have to embedded contact homology (ECH) and the Ruelle invariant in symplectic geometry, and to min–max widths in the study of minimal hypersurfaces. We use the first of these connections to obtain optimal bounds for the sub-leading asymptotics of ECH capacities for many toric domains.