Asymptotic behavior of three Riemannian metrics on the moduli space of 1- instantons over a definite 4-manifold (Q1174685)

A number of authors have studied the differential geometry of a moduli space \(\mathcal{M}\) of instantons over a compact, oriented, Riemannian \(4\)- manifold \(M\), and in particular the definition and properties of Riemannian metrics on the moduli space. The tangent space \(T\mathcal{M}\) at an instanton \(A\) is identified with a space \(H^{1}_{A}\) of bundle- valued harmonic \(1\)-forms over \(M\). Three different metrics on this space are considered in this paper. First the \(L^{2}\) metric \(\gamma_{I}\) - - defined by the \(L^{2}\) on \(1\)-forms -- \(\gamma_{I}(a) = \int_{M} | a |^{2}.\) Second there is a metric \(\gamma_{I-II}\) which has the advantage that it depends only on the conformal class of the metric on \(M: \gamma_{I-II}(a) = \int_{M} | Q_{A} d_{A} a |^{2}\), where \(d_{A}\) is the exterior derivative on bundle valued forms defined by the connection, and \(Q_{A}: \Omega^{2(g)} \rightarrow \Omega^{2(g)}\) is the operation defined pointwise over \(M\) by orthogonal projection to the kernel of the algebraic map \(\text{ad} F_{A} : \Omega^{2(g)} \rightarrow \Omega^{0(g)}\) (the tensor product of the Lie Bracket and the inner product on forms). It is not known if this metric is non-degenerate, or smooth, in general. A third metric, which is smooth, is defined by \(\gamma_{II}(a) = \int_{M} | d_{A} a |^{2}.\) The metric \(\gamma_{I}\) has been extensively studied by \textit{D. Groisser} and \textit{Th. H. Parker} [J. Differ. Geom. 29, 499-544 (1989; Zbl 0679.53024)], particularly in the case when the manifold \(M\) is simply connected with definite intersection form. There is then a moduli space \(\mathcal{M}\) of \`\` \(1\)-instantons'' which is a \(5\)-dimensional manifold, and it is known that this has a natural compactification obtained by adjoining the \(4\)-manifold \(M\), to get a manifold with boundary \( \overline{ \mathcal{M}}\). Groisser and Parker showed that the metric \(\gamma_{I}\) on \(\mathcal{M}\) is incomplete in this situation, and that the metric extends to a metric on the compactification \(\overline {\mathcal{M}}\). In this paper the authors investigate similar questions for the other two metrics. The main result is an explicit asymptotic description of the metrics near the boundary. The moduli space has infinite diameter in the \(\gamma_{I-II}\) and \(\gamma_{II}\) metrics, and their behaviour near the boundary is modelled on that of hyperbolic \(5\)-space. The proofs use a careful analysis of the error terms in the description of the \`\` collar at infinity'' \(M \times (0, \lambda)\) in the moduli space \(\mathcal{M}\).