On Seifert fibered spaces bounding definite manifolds (Q2305500)

Donaldson's diagonalization theorem can be applied to prove that the Poicaré homology sphere \(P=S^2 (2;2,3/2,5/4)\) does not bound a smooth integral homology \(4\)-ball. The authors generalize that argument to Seifert fiber spaces \(Y=S^2 (e; p_1 /q_1 ,\dots,p_k /q_k )\), where \(e\geq 0, p_i /q_i >1\), and the Euler invariant \(\epsilon \geq 0\). In their main Theorem they obtain a necessary condition on the \(p_i /q_i\)'s for \(Y\) to bound a smooth \(4\)-manifold \(W\) with signature \(\sigma (W)=b_2 (W)\) and such that the inclusion induced map \(H_1 (Y;\mathbb{Q})\to H_1 (W;\mathbb{Q})\) is injective. As an application they prove that if \(Y\) is oriented so that it bounds a smooth positive definite plumbing \(4\)-manifold, then if \(Y\) bounds a smooth negative definite \(4\)-manifold, \(e=1\). The proof yields a positive answer to a question by \textit{W. D. Neumann} and \textit{D. Zagier} [Lect. Notes Math. 1167, 241--244 (1985; Zbl 0589.57016)], that if the intersection form of the plumbing of \(Y\) is diagonalizable over \(\mathbb{Z}\), then \(e=1\). The result also yields a positive answer to a question by \textit{T. Lidman} and \textit{E. Tweedy} [Can. Math. Bull. 61, No. 4, 754--767 (2018; Zbl 1415.57015)], that if \(Y\) is a Seifert fibered integral homology sphere with central weight different from \(1\), then the Heegaard-Floer invariant is not \(0\). As a second application the authors give a short proof of a classification of Seifert fiber spaces over \(S^2\) that bound rational homology \(S^1{\times}D^3\)'s.