Hitchin-Thorpe-type inequalities for pseudo-Riemannian 4-manifolds of metric signature \((++--)\) (Q5955153)

Let \(M\) be a 4-dimensional compact Einstein manifold. Then the Euler characteristic \(\chi\) and the Hirzebruch index \(\tau\) of \(M\) satisfy the inequality \(\chi\geq{3\over 2}|\tau|\), known as the Hitchin-Thorpe inequality. When the metric is pseudo-Riemannian of signature \((++--)\), then the following similar inequality is satisfied under certain curvature restrictions: \(-\chi\geq{3\over 2}|\tau|\), which is known as the Hitchin-Thorpe-type inequality. In the paper under review, the authors show that for a compact pseudo-Riemannian 4-manifold \(M\) of signature \((++--)\) the Hitchin-Thorpe-type inequality holds under a weaker condition than the Einstein condition. The key fact in the analysis of the authors is the following: the existence of a metric of signature \((++--)\) on a 4-manifold with the structure group \(SO_2(2,2)\) is equivalent to the existence of a pair of an almost complex structure and an opposite almost complex structure on the 4-manifold. This reduces the structure group to the maximal compact subgroup \(SO(2)\times SO(2)\) of \(SO_2(2,2)\).