Notes on Gompf's infinite order corks (Q1980003): Difference between revisions

\textit{S. Akbulut} [J. Differ. Geom. 33, No. 2, 357--361 (1991; Zbl 0839.57016)] constructed an exotic contractible 4-manifold \(M\) where no diffeomorphism on the boundary could be extended to the whole space. His example might be used to produce more exotic manifolds: embed \(M\) (with codimension zero) into another closed 4-manifold, cut it out and then glue back using a diffeomorphism \(f\) which does not extend. Such a pair \((M, f)\) is called a \textit{cork} and the cutting-pasting operation a \textit{cork twist}. Other authors have shown that any two smooth structures on a closed simply-connected 4-manifold are related by a single cork twist (using order 2 corks) [\textit{C. L. Curtis} et al., Invent. Math. 123, No. 2, 343--348 (1996; Zbl 0843.57020)]. \textit{R. Gompf} [Geom. Topol. 21, No. 4, 2475--2484 (2017; Zbl 1420.57058)] built the first cork of infinite order (or a \(\mathbb{Z}\)-cork in the terminology of equivariant corks [\textit{D. Auckly} et al., Algebr. Geom. Topol. 17, No. 3, 1771--1783 (2017; Zbl 1382.57010)]) by using the knot surgery of \textit{R. Fintushel} and \textit{R. J. Stern} [Invent. Math. 134, No. 2, 363--400 (1998; Zbl 0914.57015)], and demonstrated that cork twists contribute infinitely many exotic smooth structures (distinguished by the Seiberg-Witten invariant, but eventually the Alexander polynomial). Along this line, the author of the current paper considers the \(n\)-fold boundary sum of Gompf's cork and uses it to build \(\mathbb{Z}^n\)-corks. Similar invariants are used to detect the exoticness of the cork twists. Two results about smooth structures on the double of Gompf's cork are also included.