Geometric automorphism groups of symplectic 4-manifolds (Q388810)

For a smooth \(4\)-manifold \(M\) with a symplectic form \(\omega\), let \(K_\omega\) denote the symplectic canonical class. \((M,\omega)\) is said to be minimal if it does not contain any embedded symplectic sphere with self-intersection \(-1\). A minimal symplectic \(4\)-manifold \((M,\omega)\) has the Kodaira dimension \(\kappa(M)\). For a finitely generated free abelian group \(\Lambda\), let \(\Gamma:\Lambda\times \Lambda \to \mathbb{Z}\) be a unimodular symmetric bilinear form on \(\Lambda\), and let \(A(\Gamma)\) be the automorphism group of \(\Gamma\). There is a natural map from the group of orientation-preserving diffeomorphisms \(\text{Diff}^{\,+}(M)\) to the automorphism group \(A(\Gamma)\) of \(\Gamma\). Let \(D(M)\) be the image of this natural map, that is, an automorphism is in \(D(M)\) if it is realized by an orientation-preserving diffeomorphism. \(D(M)\) is called the geometric automorphism group. In this paper, the authors study properties of the geometric automorphism group \(D(M)\) of a symplectic \(4\)-manifold \((M,\omega)\). They focus on the question when \(D(M)\) is of infinite index in \(A(\Gamma_M)\) when \(A(\Gamma_M)\) is an infinite group. The authors prove that an automorphism group \(A(\Gamma_M)\) is infinite if \(\Gamma\) is indefinite of rank at least \(3\). Also, they show that if \(\kappa(M)=0\) and \(\Gamma\) is odd, then \(A(\Gamma)\) is infinite and \(D(M)\) is of infinite index in \(A(\Gamma)\).