Nonholomorphic Lefschetz fibrations with \((-1)\)-sections (Q1741437)

If $X$ is a closed, oriented smooth 4-manifold, then a smooth map $f:X\to S^2$ is called a Lefschetz fibration if for each critical point $p$ of $f$ and $f(p)$ there are complex local coordinate charts agreeing with the orientations of $X$ and $S^2$ on which $f$ is of the form $f(z_1,z_2)=z_1z_2$. If the genus of the regular fiber of $f$ is $g$, then $f$ is called a genus-$g$ Lefschetz fibration. A Lefschetz fibration $f:X\to S^2$ is said to be holomorphic if there are complex structures on both $X$ and $S^2$ with respect to which $f$ is a holomorphic projection. $f$ is said to be nonholomorphic if it is not isomorphic to any holomorphic Lefschetz fibration. If $f:S\to C$ is a relatively minimal genus-$g$ holomorphic fibration, where $S$ and $C$ are a complex surface and a complex curve, respectively, then, in [Math. Ann. 276, 449--466 (1987; Zbl 0596.14028)], \textit{G. Xiao} defined a certain numerical invariant $\lambda_f$, called the slope of $f$, determined by the signature and Euler characteristic of $S$, the genera of $C$, and a generic fiber. It was shown that every relatively minimal genus-$g$ holomorphic fibration $f$ satisfies $4(g-1)/g\le\lambda_f$. This inequality is called the slope inequality. \par In this paper, the authors consider Lefschetz fibrations that have $(-1)$-sections. Blowing up at the base loci of a genus-$g$ Lefschetz pencil yields a genus-$g$ Lefschetz fibration with $(-1)$-sections, and conversely, blowing down of $(-1)$-sections of a genus-$g$ Lefschetz fibration gives a genus-$g$ Lefschetz pencil. Furthermore, a closed 4-manifold admits a symplectic structure if and only if it admits a Lefschetz pencil. It is natural to ask how far smooth symplectic Lefschetz fibrations are from holomorphic ones. One approach to this question is to construct various nonholomorphic examples. The authors construct two types of nonholomorphic Lefschetz fibrations over $S^2$ with $(-1)$-sections. One type of the two does not satisfy the slope inequality, a necessary condition for a fibration to be holomorphic, and has a simply connected total space, and the other has a total space that cannot admit any complex structure in the first place. The authors prove that for each $g\ge 3$ there is a genus-$g$ nonholomorphic Lefschetz fibration $X\to S^2$ with a $(-1)$-section and $\pi_1(X)=1$ such that it does not satisfy the slope inequality. Also, they show that for each $g\ge 4$ there is a family of genus-$g$ nonholomorphic Lefschetz fibrations $X_{U_n}\to S^2$ with two disjoint $(-1)$-sections, for each positive integer $n$, such that $X_{U_n}$ does not admit any complex structure with either orientation and is not homotopically equivalent to $X_{U_m}$ when $n\ne m$.