Rational blow-down along wahl type plumbing trees of spheres (Q2464794)

There has been a flurry of results in the last three years on exotic smooth structures on rational surfaces \(M(k) =\mathbb C \mathbb P^2 \#k \overline {\mathbb C \mathbb P^2}\) for small values of \(k.\) For some of these results, see the papers of \textit{J. Park} [Invent. Math. 159, 657--667 (2005; Zbl 1080.57030)], \textit{J. Park, A. Stipsicz}, and \textit{Z. Szabó} [Math. Res. Lett. 12, 701--712 (2005; Zbl 1081.57025)], \textit{R. Fintushel} and \textit{R. Stern} [J. Am. Math. Soc. 19, 171--180 (2006; Zbl 1087.57019)], \textit{R. Fintushel, B. D. Park}, and \textit{R. Stern} [Algebr. Geom. Topol. 7, 2103--2116 (2007; Zbl 1142.57018)], \textit{R. Fintushel} and \textit{R. Stern} [J. Topol. 1, 1--15 (2008; Zbl 1148.57037)], \textit{S. Baldridge} and \textit{P. Kirk} [Geom. Topol. 12, 919--940 (2008; Zbl 1152.57026)], \textit{A. Akhmedov} and \textit{B. D. Park} [Invent. Math. 173, 209--223 (2008; Zbl 1144.57026)], \textit{A. Akhmedov, S. Baldridge, R. I. Baykur, P. Kirk}, and \textit{B. D. Park} [Simply connected minimal 4-manifolds with signature less than \(-1\), arkiv: math:0705.0778] and \textit{A. Stipsicz, Z. Szabó}, and \textit{J. Wahl} [J. Topol. 1, 477--517 (2008; Zbl 1143.32018)]. In the paper under review, the author constructs exotic smooth structures for the cases of \(k = 6,7,8,9.\) The construction uses the technique of rational blow-downs to construct the examples, where a new manifold is formed from an older one by removing a submanifold \(P\) which is Wahl-type plumbing of trees with boundary \(Y\) and replacing it by a rational ball \(B\) with the same boundary. In the examples, a key role is played by the fact that \(Y\) is a monopole \(L\)-space as studied in the work of \textit{P. Kronheimer, T. Mrowka, P. Ozsváth}, and \textit{Z. Szabó} [Ann. Math. 165, No. 2, 457--546 (2007; Zbl 1204.57038)]. \textit{M. Freedman}'s classification theorem [J. Differ. Geom. 17, 357--453 (1982; Zbl 0528.57011)] is used to show that the blow-down created is homeomorphic to \(M(k).\) A computation of Seiberg-Witten invariants is used to show that the examples are not diffeomorphic to \(M(k).\) This follows from a theorem which shows how the Seiberg-Witten invariant of the new manifold is related to the Seiberg-Witten invariant of the one on which the rational blow-down procedure was performed when the boundary manifold \(Y\) is a monopole \(L\)-space under appropriate hypotheses.