On smooth structures of potential surfaces of general type homeomorphic to rational surfaces (Q1319256)

In [Topology 32, 551-566 (1993; Zbl 0796.57010)] we have showed that no surface of general type can be diffeomorphic to \(\mathbb{P}^2\#\overline\mathbb{P}^2\) or to \(\mathbb{P}^1\times\mathbb{P}^1\). Combining the results in [\textit{C. Okonek} and \textit{A. van de Ven}, Invent. Math. 86, 357-370 (1986; Zbl 0613.14018), 95, 601-614 (1989; Zbl 0691.57007); \textit{D. Kotschick}, ibid. 95, 591-600 (1989; Zbl 0691.57008); \textit{R. Friedman} and \textit{J. W. Morgan}, Smoothing four-manifolds and complex surfaces, Ergebn. Math. Grenzgeb., 3. Folge V. 27 (1994; Zbl 0817.14017); \textit{V. Pidstrigach}, Behavior of moduli of ASD connections under the deformation of the metric, in `Geometry and topology of four-manifolds', Conf. McMaster Univ. July 1990], we see that the Van de Ven's conjecture about the smooth invariance of the Kodaira dimension of an algebraic surface has been reduced to the following Question: Is there any surface of general type which is diffeomorphic to \(\mathbb{P}^2\# n\overline\mathbb{P}^2\) where \(n\) is an integer with \(n\geq 2\)? In this paper, we handle the case when \(2\leq n\leq 9\), which is in the range of a result of \textit{C. T. C. Wall} [J. Lond. Math. Soc. 39, 131-140 (1964; Zbl 0121.18101)]. We have the following generalization of the Theorem 0.2 in our paper [loc. cit.]. Theorem: Let \(X\) be surface of general type which contains no smooth rational curves. Then, \(X\# m\overline\mathbb{P}^2\) is not diffeomorphic to a rational surface when \(m+b_2(X)\leq 10\) where \(b_2(X)\) is the second Betti number of \(X\).