Dehn surgeries and negative-definite four-manifolds (Q1925767)

In the paper under review the following question is considered: given a knot \(K\) in the 3 sphere, for which rational numbers \(r\) does the Dehn surgery \(S_r^3(K)\) bound a smooth negative-definite four-manifold? The authors study this question and define a smooth concordance invariant. It is shown that \(S_r^3(K)\) bounds a negative-definite four-manifold whenever \(r\) is negative or sufficiently large, so the invariant is defined as \[ m(K) = inf \{ r\in Q_{>0}\, |\, S_r^3(K) \,\, \text{bounds \, a \, negative-definite \, four-manifold}\} \] The main result of this paper shows the following: (a) If a knot \(K\) admits a diagram without positive crossings, then \(m(K)=0\); (b) For all rational numbers \(r > m(K)\), \(S_r^3(K)\) bounds a negative-definite four-manifold to which all spin\(^c\) structures on \(S_r^3(K)\) extend; (c) \(m(K)\) is a concordance invariant of \(K\); (d) The integer valued invariant \(\lceil m \rceil\) is subadditive with respect to connected sum. Also, it is conjectured that the subadditivity property holds for \(m(K)\). This invariant is calculated for torus knots; in order to do this the authors develop some results about continued fractions of the rational surgery coefficient of \(K\), and relate them with surgery cobordisms.