Holomorphic triangle invariants and the topology of symplectic four-manifolds (Q1880947)

In earlier work, the authors constructed an invariant \(\Phi_{X,k}\) for smooth, closed 4-manifolds using holomorphic triangles and Heegaard-Floer homology. This invariant is nontrivial for symplectic 4-manifolds. The result leads to new proofs for theorems such as the indecomposability of symplectic 4-manifolds, the vanishing result for a connected sum, the symplectic Thom conjecture and the indecomposability theorem for splittings of 4-manifolds along certain 3-manifolds. Some details are as follows: If \((X,\omega)\) is a closed symplectic 4-manifold with \(b_2^+ > 1\), then for the canonical \(\text{Spin}^c\) structure \(k\) it holds that \(\Phi_{X,k} = \pm 1\). Moreover, if \(s\) is any \(\text{Spin}^c\) structure for which \(\Phi_{X,s} \neq 0\), then \(\langle c_1(k) \cup \omega, [X]\rangle\leq \langle c_1(s) \cup \omega, [X]\rangle\) with equality if and only if \(k = s\). If \(\Sigma \subset X\) is an embedded, symplectic submanifold of dimension 2, then \(\Sigma\) is genus-minimizing in its homology class. This result is an analogue of Taubes' result concerning the Seiberg-Witten invariants for symplectic 4-manifolds. However, in the proof the authors use the topology of Lefschetz fibrations and Heegaard-Floer homology. Let \((G,m)\) be a weighted graph where \(G\) is a disjoint union of trees and at each vertex \(\nu\) in \(G\), \(m(\nu) \geq d(\nu)\), \(d(\nu)\) is the degree of \(\nu\) and let \(Y = Y(G,m)\) be its associated plumbed 3-manifold. Then the authors show that no closed, symplectic 4-manifold \((X, \omega)\) can be decomposed along \(Y\) as a union \(X = X_1 \cup_Y X_2\) into two pieces with \(b_2^+(X_i) > 0\), \(i = 1, 2\). Moreover, if \(X\) is a Stein 4-manifold with \(\partial X = \pm Y(G,m)\), then \(b_2^+(X) = 0\).