Compact Stein surfaces as branched covers with same branch sets (Q1747140)

For two oriented 2-disks \(D_1^2\) and \(D_2^2\), a properly embedded surface \(S\) in \(D_1^2\times D_2^2\) is called a braided surface of degree \(m\) if the first projection \(\text{pr}_1:D_1^2\times D_2^2\to D_1^2\) restricts to a simple branched covering \(p_S={\text{pr}_1}| _{S}:S\to D_1^2\) of degree \(m\). If \(\Delta=\{x_1,\dots,x_n\}\subset \text{Int}(D^2)\) of an oriented 2-disk \(D^2\) and \(x_0\in\partial D^2\), then the fundamental group \(\pi_1(D^2\setminus\Delta,x_0)\) is a free group of rank \(n\) with generators \(\gamma_1,\dots,\gamma_n\) called a Hurwitz system for \((\Delta,x_0)\). For a braided surface \(S\) there is a homomorphism \(\omega_S\), called a braid monodromy of \(S\), of the free group \(\pi_1(D_1^2\setminus\Delta(S),x_0)\) and the braid group \(B_m\) given by \(\omega_S(\gamma_i)=b_i\), where \(\Delta(S)=\{x_1,\dots,x_n\}\subset \text{Int}(D_1^2)\) is the set of branch points of the branched covering \(p_S:S\to D_1^2\). A braided surface \(S\) is said to be positive if each \(\omega_S(\gamma_i)\) is positive. For an oriented, connected, compact 4-manifold \(X\), a smooth map \(f:X\to D^2\) is called a positive Lefschetz fibration if there exists a set \(\Delta(f)=\{x_1,\dots,x_n\}\subset \text{Int}(D_1^2)\) such that (i)\, \(f| _{f^{-1}(D^2\setminus\Delta(f))}:f^{-1}(D^2\setminus\Delta(f))\to D^2\setminus\Delta(f)\) is a smooth fiber bundle over \(D^2\setminus\Delta(f)\) with fiber diffeomorphic to an oriented compact surface \(\Sigma\) with boundary, (ii)\, \(x_1,\dots,x_n\) are the critical values of \(f\), and each singular fiber \(f^{-1}(x_i)\) has a unique critical point \(p_i\in f^{-1}(x_i)\), and (iii)\, for each \(p_i\) and \(x_i\), there are local complex coordinate charts with respect to the given orientations of \(X\) and \(D^2\) such that locally \(f\) can be written as \(f(z_1,z_2)=z_1^2+z_2^2\). A positive Lefschetz fibration is said to be allowable if all of its vanishing cycles are homologically nontrivial in the fiber surface. A compact Stein surface is a sublevel set of an exhausting strictly plurisubharmonic function on a 2-dimensional complex manifold. In [Invent. Math. 143, No.2, 325--348 (2001; Zbl 0983.32027)], \textit{A. Loi} and \textit{R. Piergallini} proved that if \(X\) is an oriented, connected, compact 4-manifold with boundary, then the following conditions are equivalent: (i)\, \(X\) is a compact Stein surface, (ii)\, \(X\) admits a positive allowable Lefschetz fibration \(f:X\to D^2\), (iii)\, \(X\) is a simple branched cover of \(D^4\) branched along a positive braided surface. In this paper, the author considers whether or not, for a given positive braided surface \(S\), there is more than one compact Stein surface realized as a cover of \(D^4\) branched along \(S\) which have the same degrees and are mutually diffeomorphic, but which admit mutually distinct Stein structures. The author answers this question by showing that for a given integer \(N\geq 2\) there is a positive braided surface \(S(N)\) and simple branched covers \(X_1(N),\dots,X_N(N)\) of \(D^4\) branched along \(S(N)\) such that (i)\, the degrees of these covers are same, (ii)\, \(X_1(N),\dots,X_N(N)\) are mutually diffeomorphic, and (iii)\, the Stein structures on \(X_1(N),\dots,X_N(N)\) associated to the covers are mutually not even homotopic as almost complex structures by any choice of diffeomorphism of the underlying spaces.