Representing homology classes of \(CP^ 2{\#}\overline{CP}\) 2 (Q1109380)

In this note the author proves the following theorem: let \(\eta\), \(\zeta\) be canonical generators of \(H_ 2(CP^ 2{\#}\overline{CP}^ 2,{\mathbb{Z}})\). Then \(\gamma =a\eta +b\zeta\), \(a,b\in {\mathbb{Z}}\) can be represented by a differentiable \(S^ 2\) if and only if a, b satisfy one of the following conditions. (i) \(| | a| -| b| | \leq 1\) or (ii) \((a,b)=(\pm 2,0)\) or \((0,\pm 2)\). The proof as may be guessed relies heavily on the work of Freedman. Similar results were also obtained by T. Lawson.