Diffeomorphism of simply connected algebraic surfaces (Q2373557)

In the paper under review it is shown that even in the case of simply connected algebraic surfaces, deformation and differentiable equivalence do not coincide. The first counterexample to Morgan-Friedman's [\textit{R. Friedman} and \textit{J. W. Morgan}, Bull. Am. Math. Soc., New Ser. 18, No. 1, 1--19 (1988; Zbl 0662.57016)] ``DIF=DEFF'' speculation (are orientedly diffeomorphic algebraic surfaces equivalent by deformation?) was given by \textit{R. Friedman} and \textit{John W. Morgan} [``Smooth four-manifolds and complex surfaces'' (Ergebn. Math. Grenzgeb. 3. Folge. 27. Berlin) (1994; Zbl 0817.14017)] constructing elliptic surfaces not deformation equivalent to their complex conjugate. All these surfaces have infinite fundamental group. \textit{M. Manetti} [Invent. Math. 143, No. 1, 29--76 (2001; Zbl 1060.14520)] gave the first counterexample for surfaces of general type. Other counterexamples were later given by \textit{F. Catanese} [Ann. Math. (2) 158, No. 2, 577--592 (2003; Zbl 1042.14011)] and by \textit{Vik. S. Kulikov} and \textit{V. M. Kharlamov} [Izv. Math. 66, No. 1, 133--150 (2002; Zbl 1055.14060)]. This paper gives the first simply connected counterexamples. More precisely the authors construct, for each positive integers \(h\), \(h\) simply connected surfaces of general type that are all diffeomorphic but pairwise not deformation equivalent. Since by Seiberg-Witten theory any diffeomorphism \(X \rightarrow X'\) carries \(c_1(K_X)\) either in \(c_1(K_{X'})\) or in \(-c_1(K_{X'})\), this implies that the same statement holds if we require the diffeomorphism to preserve the canonical class (something that does not happen for most of the previous examples, since obtained by taking pairs of complex conjugated surfaces). The construction is surprisingly simple, since all surfaces are obtained as simple bidouble covers of \({\mathbb P}^1 \times {\mathbb P^1}\). The bulk of the paper is in showing that the given surfaces are diffeomorphic. The techniques introduced should also allow to investigate is the surfaces are symplectomorphic.