Rank inequalities for the Heegaard Floer homology of branched covers (Q2134641)

Heegaard Floer homology is a collection of invariants of low-dimensional objects. The most basic version is \(\widehat{HF}\), which associates an \(\mathbb{F}_2\)-vector space \(\widehat{HF}(Y,\mathfrak{s})\) to a closed oriented 3-manifold \(Y\) and a \(\mathrm{Spin}^c\) structure \(\mathfrak{s} \in \mathrm{Spin}^c(Y)\). In this paper, the authors study the behavior of Heegaard Floer homology under taking double branched covers. Let \(L\) be an oriented nullhomologous link of \(l>0\) components in a closed 3-manifold \(Y\), and \(\pi: \Sigma(Y,L) \rightarrow Y\) a double cover branched along \(L\). Then the authors show that for any \(\mathrm{Spin}^c\) structure \(\mathfrak{s}\) on \(Y\) there is a spectral sequence with \(E^1\)-page given by \[ \widehat{HF}(\Sigma(Y,L), \pi^{\ast}\mathfrak{s}) \otimes H_{\ast}(T^{l-1}) \otimes \mathbb{F}_2[[\theta,\theta^{-1}] \] converging to \[ \bigoplus \limits_{\{\mathfrak{s}' \mid \pi^{\ast} \mathfrak{s}'=\pi^{\ast}\mathfrak{s}\}} \widehat{HF}(Y,\mathfrak{s}') \otimes H_{\ast}(T^{l-1}) \otimes \mathbb{F}_2[[\theta,\theta^{-1}], \] where \(T^{l-1}\) denotes the \((l-1)\)-dimensional torus. In particular, they show that \[ \dim \widehat{HF}(\Sigma(Y,L), \pi^{\ast} \mathfrak{s}) \geq \sum \limits_{\{\mathfrak{s}' \mid \pi^{\ast} \mathfrak{s}'=\pi^{\ast}\mathfrak{s}\}} \dim \widehat{HF}(Y,\mathfrak{s}'). \] The arguments mainly use the generalization of Seidel-Smith's localization theorem [\textit{P. Seidel} and \textit{I. Smith}, Geom. Funct. Anal. 20, No. 6, 1464--1501 (2010; Zbl 1210.53084)] given by \textit{T. Large} [``Equivariant Floer theory and double covers of three-manifolds'', Preprint, \url{arXiv:1910.12119}]. As applications of the main result, the authors discuss the relationship with the L-space conjecture and give some other topological applications. They also give an analogue of the main theorem for sutured Floer homology.