h-cobordisms between simply connected 4-manifolds (Q1106516)

The author studies invertible h-cobordism between simply connected 4- manifolds. A cobordism is called invertible if after gluing another cobordism along a common boundary component this composition becomes a trivial cobordism. A cobordism is called inertial if the two boundary components are diffeomorphic. The author proves that if the intersection form of a manifold M is not definite of rank greater than 8, every inertial invertible cobordism from M has a handle decomposition with only one 2-handle and one 3-handle. If the intersection form is definite of rank greater than 8, one has to replace the number of 2 handles by two (Proposition 5). Another result is the following. An invertible cobordism between M and N such that M{\#}k(S \(2\times S\) 2) and N{\#}k(S \(2\times S\) 2) are diffeomorphic for \(k>0\) \((k>1\) if the intersection form is definite of rank greater than 8) has a handle decomposition with k 2-handles and k 3- handles (Prop. 6). These results are rather straightforward consequences of theorems of \textit{C. T. C. Wall} [J. Lond. Math. Soc. 39, 131-140 (1964; Zbl 0121.181) and ibid. 141-149 (1964; Zbl 0131.207)] and \textit{F. Quinn} [J. Diff. Geom. 24, 343-372 (1986; Zbl 0617.57007)]. In a final section the author combines his results with theorems of Donaldson, Friedman and Morgan, and Matumoto to obtain information about cobordisms between Dolgachev surfaces as well as the Kummer surface.