Simply connected Sasaki-Einstein rational homology 5-spheres (Q2037853)

This article ``completely determine[s] which simply connected rational homology 5-spheres admit Sasaki-Einstein metrics''. The path chosen to accomplish the task is based on the conjugation of a \textit{canonical} method going back to Kobayashi and the important developments by Boyer and Galicki, with other results by these authors and Kollár and Nakamaye, which have proved that a simply connected 5-dimensional quasiregular Sasaki-Einstein rational homology sphere must be one of the manifolds listed in Theorem 1.7. The problem was to prove that they possess a Sasaki-Einstein metric, which is thus asserted. Besides \(S^5\), those manifolds topologically arise as \(k\)-fold connected sums of \(M_m\) where \(M_m\) was found in [\textit{S. Smale}, Ann. of Math. (2) 75, 38--46 (1962; Zbl 0101.16103)]. For most manifolds in the list, the metric was known before, by the works of the referred authors. The list in Theorem 1.7 is the following: the 5-sphere \(S^5\); \(M_r\), where \(r\) is a positive integer with \(r\geq2\) not divisible by 30; \(2M_5\); \(2M_4\); \(2M_3,\ 3M_3,\ 4M_3\); \(nM_2\), where \(n\geq2\). The last case was not known before and it is stated as the main theorem: For each positive integer \(n\geq4\), the rational homology 5-sphere \(nM_2\) admits a Sasaki-Einstein metric. The proof within the theory of Fano orbifolds, Kähler-Einstein metrics and links in weighted projective space, in relations with Sasakian geometry by the previously mentioned authors, makes use of a new so-called \(\delta\)-invariant, apparently due to [\textit{K. Fujita} and \textit{Y. Odaka}, Tohoku Math. J. (2) 70, No. 4, 511--521 (2018; Zbl 1422.14047)].