Poisson structures of near-symplectic manifolds and their cohomology

Abstract: We connect Poisson and near-symplectic geometry by showing that there is a singular Poisson structure on a near-symplectic 4-manifold. The Poisson structure $\pi$ is defined on the tubular neighbourhood of the singular locus $Z_{\omega}$ of the 2-form $\omega$, it is of maximal rank 4 and it vanishes on a degeneracy set containing $Z_{\omega}$. We compute its smooth Poisson cohomology, which depends on the modular vector field and it is finite dimensional. We conclude with a discussion on the relation between the Poisson structure $\pi$ and the overtwisted contact structure associated to a near-symplectic 4-manifold.