Gauge theory for embedded surfaces. II (Q1344446)

This paper is the second in a series of two [for the first one see ibid. 32, No. 4, 773-826 (1993; Zbl 0799.57007)], aimed at developing results about the topology of smoothly embedded surfaces in a smooth 4-manifold using new Yang-Mills moduli spaces. The moduli spaces were introduced in the first paper, this one contains an interesting application. Namely, that the absolute value of the Euler characteristic of an embedded surface is bounded below by its self-intersection number (= Euler number of the normal bundle) if it is not an inessential sphere or a sphere of self-intersection number \(-1\). The ambient 4-manifold is assumed to be closed, oriented, simply-connected, \(b^+\) is odd and not less than 3 and it has a non-trivial polynomial invariant. It should be mentioned that this result is superseded by the new developments in this area stemming from the Seiberg-Witten equations. For example, in the meantime the same authors proved the Thom conjecture which is a result on smoothly embedded surfaces in the complex projective plane.