Unfolded Seiberg-Witten Floer spectra. I: Definition and invariance (Q1746381)

The paper under review defines a generalization of the Seiberg-Witten Floer stable homotopy type [\textit{C. Manolescu}, Geom. Topol. 7, 889--932 (2003; Zbl 1127.57303)] to three-manifolds \(Y\) with positive first Betti number, coinciding with the invariant of Kronheimer-Manolescu when \(b_1(Y)=1\), and generalizing previous constructions of the first and third author. Specifically, for a closed oriented three-manifold \(Y\) with \(\mathrm{spin}^c\)-structure \(\mathfrak{s}\), the authors define an \textit{unfolded} Seiberg-Witten Floer homotopy type \(\underline{\mathrm{swf}}^A(Y,\mathfrak{s})\), which also depends on a choice of metric and base connection (changing these choices results in suspending or desuspending \(\underline{\mathrm{swf}}^A(Y,\mathfrak{s})\)). The invariant \(\underline{\mathrm{swf}}^A(Y,\mathfrak{s})\) should be roughly thought of as the universal cover of a conjectural Seiberg-Witten Floer spectrum \(\mathit{SWF}(Y,\mathfrak{s})\), which is expected to exist only for three-manifolds satisfying a further condition on \(H^*(Y)\). In particular, the authors expect the homology of \(\underline{\mathrm{swf}}^A(Y,\mathfrak{s})\) to coincide with the totally twisted monopole Floer homology (alternatively, the totally twisted Heegaard Floer homology). The construction of \(\underline{\mathrm{swf}}^A(Y,\mathfrak{s})\) follows along the same lines as the construction of Kronheimer-Manolescu. The authors consider the Seiberg-Witten equations projected to the global Coulomb slice, and consider several instances of finite-dimensional approximation by taking larger and larger `cuts' of the Coulomb slice. Much of the work in the paper consists of proving the invariance of \(\underline{\mathrm{swf}}^A(Y,\mathfrak{s})\), which is neither a (equivariant) spectrum, nor even a stable homotopy type, but is naturally considered as a directed system of spaces. Defining the appropriate category to receive \(\underline{\mathrm{swf}}^A(Y,\mathfrak{s})\) becomes complicated, and showing invariance of the resulting object is much more involved than in the case \(b_1=0\). The construction retains some desirable features of the construction of Manolescu. For instance, full transversality (in the sense of Kronheimer-Mrowka) is not necessary to construct the invariant, although perturbations are still necessary. The authors include a further construction in the case of a torsion \(\mathrm{spin}^c\)-structure, for which the dependence on the auxiliary choices can be removed. Furthermore, the authors show that there is a \(\mathrm{Pin}(2)\)-equivariant system of spaces if \(\mathfrak{s}\) is a \(\mathrm{spin}\)-structure. The paper also includes calculations for several families of convenient three-manifolds. Input for much of this is based on the calculations of \textit{T. Mrowka, P. Ozsváth} and \textit{B. Yu} [Commun. Anal. Geom. 5, No. 4, 685--791 (1997; Zbl 0933.57030)] for Seifert-fibered spaces. In future papers the authors intend to develop a generalized Bauer-Furuta invariant making use of the objects of this paper. This paper is an important addition to the use of finite-dimensional approximation techniques in gauge theory.