Three applications of instanton numbers (Q883031)

Instanton numbers were introduced by \textit{R. Friedman} and \textit{J.W. Morgan} [J. Differ. Geom. 27, No. 3, 371--398 (1988; Zbl 0669.57017)] as local invariants for rank two instanton bundles on blow-ups. In the paper under review, the authors give three applications: These numbers are shown to give the coarsest stratification of the moduli space of instantons on the blow-up \(\tilde X\) of a compact complex surface \(X\) in a point such that all strata are separated. Via pull-back, one has an inclusion of the moduli space of charge \(k\) instantons \(M_k(X)\) into \(M_k(\tilde X)\) which is of the same dimension. However, the authors can use the stratification to show that \(H_2(M_k(\tilde X),M_k(X))\) is nontrivial. A third application uses instantons to distinguish curve singularities. For \(p\in \mathbb{C}[x,y]\) and a fixed integer \(j\) determining the splitting type on the exceptional divisor, one can construct instanton bundles \(E\) on \(\tilde{\mathbb{C}}^2\) whose instanton numbers are invariants of the corresponding curve singularity. It is proved that they distinguish nodes from cusps, thus being finer than the classical invariants (\(\delta_P\), Milnor number, Tyurina number).