%0 Journal Article %T Symplectic maps to projective spaces and symplectic invariants %A Denis Auroux %J Mathematics %D 2000 %I arXiv %X After reviewing recent results on symplectic Lefschetz pencils and symplectic branched covers of CP^2, we describe a new construction of maps from symplectic manifolds of any dimension to CP^2 and the associated monodromy invariants. We also show that a dimensional induction process makes it possible to describe any compact symplectic manifold by a series of words in braid groups and a word in a symmetric group. %U http://arxiv.org/abs/math/0007130v1