Geography of simply connected spin symplectic 4-manifolds. II (Q2418702)

If \(M\) is a smooth 4-manifold, then \(M\) is said to have the \(\infty^2\)-property if there exist infinitely many pairwise nondiffeomorphic irreducible symplectic 4-manifolds and infinitely many pairwise nondiffeomorphic irreducible nonsymplectic 4-manifolds, all of which are homeomorphic to \(M\), and also it is said that a symmetric bilinear form has the \(\infty^2\)-property if it is the intersection form of infinitely many pairwise nondiffeomorphic simply connected irreducible symplectic 4-manifolds and infinitely many pairwise nondiffeomorphic simply connected irreducible nonsymplectic 4-manifolds. If \(p\ge 0\) is an even integer and \(q>0\) is an odd integer, then \(\Lambda_p\) denotes the smallest positive odd integer such that the symmetric bilinear form \(pE_8\oplus qH\) has the \(\infty^2\)-property for \(\ge\Lambda_p\), where \(E_8\) is the positive definite even form of rank 8. The best known lower bound for \(\Lambda_p\) comes from [``Intersection forms of spin 4-manifolds and the Pin(2)-equivariant Mahowald invariant'', Preprint, \url{arXiv:1812.04052}] by \textit{M. J. Hopkins} et al., which gives \(\Lambda_p\ge p+\varepsilon_p\) for \(p\ge 4\) and \[\varepsilon_p=\left\{\begin{array}{lll} 2 & \text{if} & p\equiv1,2,5,6 \pmod 8\\ 3 & \text{if} & p\equiv3,4,7 \pmod 8\\ 2 & \text{if} & p\equiv0 \pmod 8 \end{array}\right.\] If signatures and Euler characteristics can be realized by closed, symplectic four-manifolds, then this is called the geography problem for symplectic four-manifolds. In Part I of this paper, [Math. Res. Lett. 17, No. 3, 483--492 (2010; Zbl 1275.57039)], the present authors considered the geography problem for simply connected spin symplectic 4-manifolds, which asked the possible range of the Euler characteristic \(e\) and the signature \(\sigma\), or equivalently \(\chi_h=(e+\sigma)/4\) and \(c_1^2=2e +3\sigma\), of such 4-manifolds. They showed that for any odd \(n\ge3\) and even integer \(p\) with \(0\le p\le n(n^2-1)/3-2\), the symmetric bilinear form \(pE_8\oplus qH\) is realized as the intersection form of a simply connected 4-manifold having the \(\infty^2\)-property for every odd integer \(q\) with \(q\ge10n^3+2n-1-10p\). \par In this paper, the authors construct infinitely many new smooth structures on closed simply connected spin 4-manifolds with nonnegative signature, and they show that if \(p\ge 0\) is an even integer and \(m\) is any positive integer satisfying \(p\le 6m-2\), then \(\Lambda_p\le 162m+13-10p\).