Immersed spheres in \({\mathbb C}\,{\mathbb P}^ 2\) and \(S^ 2\times S^ 2\) (Q1085845)

If M is a compact, connected, simply-connected, smooth 4-manifold, and \(\gamma \in H_ 2(M; {\mathbb{Z}})\), define \(d_{\gamma}=\) minimum number of double points of immersed spheres representing \(\gamma\). Following \textit{K. Kuga} [Topology 23, 133-137 (1984; Zbl 0551.57019)], we use a theorem of \textit{S. K. Donaldson} [Bull. Am. Math. Soc., New Ser. 8, 81-83 (1983; Zbl 0519.57012)] to provide lower bounds for \(d_{\gamma}\), for \(\gamma\) certain homology classes in rational surfaces. If \(\gamma =n\gamma _ 0+2\sum ^{r}_{i=1}\gamma _ i+\sum ^{s}_{i=r+1}\gamma _ i\in H_ 2({\mathbb{C}} {\mathbb{P}}^ 2\#m(-{\mathbb{C}} {\mathbb{P}}^ 2); {\mathbb{Z}})\), \(| n| \geq 3\), \(r<\left( \begin{matrix} | n| -1\\ 2\end{matrix} \right)\), \(s\leq m\), \(n^ 2-4r-s\geq 1\), then \(d_{\gamma}>0\). This implies \(d_{n\gamma _ 0}\geq \min (\left( \begin{matrix} | n| -1\\ 2\end{matrix} \right),[\frac{n^ 2+3}{4}]).\) If \(\gamma =p\xi _ 1+q\xi _ 2+2\sum ^{r}_{i=1}\gamma _ i+\sum ^{s}_{i=r+1}\gamma _ i\in H_ 2(S^ 2\times S^ 2\#m(-{\mathbb{C}} {\mathbb{P}}^ 2); {\mathbb{Z}})\), \(| p|,| q| \geq 2\), \(r<(| p| -1)(| q| -1)\), \(s\leq m\), 2pq-4r-s\(\geq 1\), then \(d_{\gamma}>0\). This implies \(d_{p\xi _ 1+q\xi _ 2}\geq \min ((| p| -1)(| q| -1),[(| pq| +1)/2])\).