Covering-monopole map and higher degree in non-commutative geometry (Q2073906)

The present paper is devoted to studying the Seiberg-Witten equations on the universal cover of closed \(4\)-manifolds \(M\). More specifically, the paper derives invariants from the point of view of finite-dimensional approximation, to give a Bauer-Furuta-like invariant in this setting. This is substantively more technically difficult than the usual Bauer-Furuta invariant, in that one must consider configuration spaces for noncompact manifolds. The Bauer-Furuta-like invariant constructed this way takes the form of a \(\pi_1(M)\)-equivariant map between certain \(C^\ast\)-algebras. To control the analysis, the author imposes that the Atiyah-Hitchin-Singer complex over the universal cover \(\tilde{M}\) is closed, but this still allows for many interesting manifolds to be considered. A strong motivation for the constructions of this paper is found in the Kato's Conjecture 1.9, which would extend the 10/8 Theorem of Furuta. Recall that Furuta's 10/8 Theorem states that for \(M\) any compact smooth spin four-manifold, \[ b_2(M)\geq (10/8)|\sigma(M)|. \] In the event that \(M\) is aspherical, Kato conjectures that the left-hand side may be replaced with \(\chi(M)\). In the paper, several interesting cases of this conjecture are verified, including some very broad classes of manifolds.