Symplectically replacing plumbings with Euler characteristic \(2 \: 4\)-manifolds (Q2216150)

In order to construct symplectic exotic 4-manifolds with small \(b_2\), symplectic cut-and-paste operations are needed. They must meet the following properties (i)\, a symplectic 4-manifold \((P,\omega_1)\) with strongly convex boundary embedded in an ambient symplectic 4-manifold \((X,\omega)\) must be found, (ii)\,a 4-manifold \(B\) such that \(\partial B=\partial P\) and such that \(B\) admits a symplectic structure \(\omega_2\) with strongly convex boundary must be constructed, and (iii) the induced contact structures on \(\partial B\) and \(\partial P\) are contactomorphic. If these conditions are met, then the manifold \(Z=(X\backslash\mathrm{int}(P))\cup B\) inherits a symplectic structure from \(\omega\) and \(\omega_2\), and \(Z\) as a smooth 4-manifold may depend on the choice of contactomorphism. If \(P\) and \(B\) are 4-manifolds with \(\partial B=\partial P\), both \(P\) and \(B\) admit symplectic structures with strongly convex boundary that induce isotopic contact structures, and \(P\) is embedded in an ambient symplectic 4-manifold \(X\), then \(P\) is said to be symplectically replaced by \(B\) and \(B\) is called a symplectic replacement of \(P\). A symplectic cut-and-paste operation is the rational blow-down, in which a negative-definite plumbing of \(D^2\)-bundles over \(S^2\) is excised from a 4-manifold and a rational homology ball is glued in its place. This operation has been used to construct symplectic exotic 4-manifolds with small \(b_2\), an exotic \(\mathbb{C}P^2\# 7\overline{\mathbb{C}P^2}\) and exotic \(\mathbb{C}P^2\# 6\overline{\mathbb{C}P^2}\)s. The linear plumbings that can be rationally blown down are precisely those that can be symplectically replaced by rational balls. Moreover, these are precisely the plumbings whose lens space boundaries \(L(p,q)\) satisfy \(p=m^2\) and \(q=mn-1\), where \(m>n>0\) are coprime integers. Equivalently, the plumbings that can be rationally blown down are those that can be obtained by the following inductive procedure: if the linear plumbing with framings \((-b_1,\dots,-b_k)\) can be rationally blown down, then the plumbings with framings \((-b_1-1,\dots,-b_k,-2)\) and \((-2,-b_1,\dots,-b_k-1)\) can also be rationally blown down. The first such plumbing is the \(-4\)-disk bundle over \(S^2\). If \(P\) is a linear plumbing with weights \((-b_1,\dots,-b_k)\), where \(b_i\ge 2\) for all \(i\), then the linear plumbings with weights \((-2,-b_1,\dots,-b_k-1)\) and \((-b_1-1,\dots,-b_k,-2)\) are called the buddings of \(P\). Since rational homology balls have Euler characteristic 1, then a negative-definite plumbing \(P\) is called \(k\)-replaceable if it can be symplectically replaced by a negative-definite, minimal symplectic 4-manifold \(B\) satisfying \(\chi(B)=k\) and \(b_3(B)=0\). Then \(P\) is said to be \(k\)-replaced by \(B\) and \(B\) is called a \(k\)-replacement of \(P\). In this paper, the author introduces new symplectic cut-and-paste operations that generalize the rational blow-down, and is mainly concerned with 2-replaceable plumbings. The first result is a classification of 2-replaceable linear plumbings. There are infinitely many linear plumbings that have Euler characteristic 2, namely the disk bundles over \(S^2\) which are called trivially 2-replaceable. Starting with one of these disk bundles, the author constructs infinitely many 2-replaceable linear plumbings by plumbing these disk bundles with 1-replaceable linear plumbings. The author constructs two families of plumbing trees (a) and (b) from the 2-replaceable linear plumbing with weights \((-2,-4, -4, -2)\) and shows the main result of the paper by stating that the 2-replaceable tree (a) with \(n=9\) and \(m=3\) can be embedded in \(\mathbb{C}P^2\# 16\overline{\mathbb{C}P^2}\). Also, if this tree is denoted by \(P\) and \(B\) denotes its Euler characteristic 2 replacement, then \(X=(\mathbb{C}P^2\# 16\overline{\mathbb{C}P^2}\backslash\mathrm{int}(P))\cup_{\partial P}B\) is homeomorphic but not diffeomorphic to \(\mathbb{C}P^2\# 6\overline{\mathbb{C}P^2}\). Furthermore, \(X\) admits a symplectic structure.