Conformally flat metrics on 4-manifolds (Q1767407)

Let \(M\) be a closed, connected, smooth spin \(4\)-manifold. There are many such manifolds which admit no flat conformal structure: for instance, simply-connected manifolds not diffeomorphic to \(S^4\) or manifolds with simple infinite fundamental group. The author proves that there exists a closed, orientable, smooth \(4\)-manifold \(N\) such that the connected sum \(M \# N\) admits a conformally flat Riemannian metric. The manifold \(N\) is -- in principle -- computable in terms of a triangulation of \(M\). As a corollary, it follows that if \(\Gamma\) is a finitely-presented group, then there exists a \(3\)-dimensional complex manifold \(Z\) which admits a complex-projective structure, so that \(\pi_1(Z)\) splits as \(\Gamma * \Gamma^{\prime}\). The author's motivation comes from a theorem of \textit{C. H. Taubes} [J. Differ. Geom. 36, 163--253 (1992; Zbl 0822.53006)]. The arguments are parallel to Taubes': one starts with a singular conformally-flat metric on \(M\), where the singularity is localized in a small open round ball \(B\subset M\) centered at \(p\), \(M\setminus\{p\}\) being parallelizable. The singular metric is obtained by pullback of the standard metric on the \(4\)-sphere under a branched covering \(M\to S^4\). In order to ''resolve the singularity'' one removes an open tubular neighborhood \(U\) of the singular locus. Afterwards, one uses the ''orbifold trick'' [see for instance \textit{M. W. Davis}, Ann. Math. (2) 117, 293--324 (1983; Zbl 0531.57041)] to eliminate the boundary of \(M\setminus U\): one introduces a Möbius reflection orbifold structure on \(M\setminus U\) to get a closed Möbius orbifold \(O\) which is a connected sum of \(M\) with an orbifold. After passing to an appropriate finite manifold cover over \(O\) one gets a conformally-flat manifold which has \(M\) as a connected summand.