Heegaard Floer correction terms, with a twist (Q1708580)

\textit{S. K. Donaldson}'s diagonalization theorem [J. Differ. Geom. 18, 279--315 (1983; Zbl 0507.57010)] strongly constrains the intersection forms of closed smooth \(4\)-manifolds. This was subsequently much generalized by \textit{K. A. Frøyshov} [Topology 41, No. 3, 525--552 (2002; Zbl 0999.57032)] and \textit{P. Ozsváth} and \textit{Z. Szabó} [Adv. Math. 173, No. 2, 179--261 (2003; Zbl 1025.57016)] to the case of manifolds with rational homology sphere boundary (or manifolds with standard \(HF^\infty\)). The paper under review generalizes these results to any \(4\)-manifold with connected boundary. That is, the authors define twisted correction terms \(\underline{d}(Y,\mathfrak{t})\in \mathbb{Q}\) for \((Y,\mathfrak{t})\) any closed \(\mathrm{spin}^c\) \(3\)-manifold with \(c_1(\mathfrak{t})\) torsion, by working with Heegaard Floer homology with twisted coefficients. They then show a bound, for \((Z,\mathfrak{s})\) a \(\mathrm{spin}^c\)-filling of (connected) \((Y,\mathfrak{t})\) with \(b_2^+(Z)=0\), and \(\mathfrak{t}\) torsion, that \[ c^2_1(\mathfrak{s})+b_2^-(Z)\leq 4\underline{d}(Y\mathfrak{t})+2b_1(Y). \] They then put this result to use to prove strong constraints on semidefinite intersection forms of \(4\)-manifolds. For example, they observe that for any closed oriented \(3\)-manifold \(Y\), there exist only finitely many even semidefinite forms that can appear as intersection forms of smooth manifolds bounding \(Y\). Other important special cases previously inaccessible are smooth 4-manifolds with boundary \(T^3\) or \(\Sigma_2\times S^1\), for which the authors show that an even negative semidefinite bounding intersection form must have nondegenerate part either trivial or a copy of \(E_8\).