Seiberg-Witten invariants and double covers of 4-manifolds (Q5929581)

In previous papers the first author [ Topics in symplectic 4-manifolds, First Int. Press. Lect. Ser. 1, 101-116 (1998; Zbl 0939.57024)] introduced the virtual neighborhoods to deal with genericity of metric problems under branched covers and the second author [Math. Ann. 296, No. 1, 119-138 (1993; Zbl 0788.58012)] studied decompositions of moduli spaces related to involutions. By extending their techniques and combining them with techniques from \textit{J. Morgan, Z. Szabó}, and \textit{C. Taubes} [J. Differ. Geom. 44, 706-788 (1996; Zbl 0974.53063)] and \textit{T. Mrowka, P. Ozsváth}, and \textit{B. Yu} [Commun. Anal. Geom. 5, No. 4, 685-791 (1997; Zbl 0933.57030)], the authors prove some new results which relate the Seiberg-Witten invariants of double covers with the invariants of the original manifold. In the unramified case, they show that if \(p:\widetilde X \to X\) is an unramified double cover and \(\xi\) is a \(spin^c\) structure on \(X\) so that the virtual dimension \(d_L = 0, c_1(L) \) is non-torsion, and \(b^+(X), b^-(X) > 0,\) then the Seiberg-Witten invariants satisfy \(SW(\widetilde \xi) = \sum_{\gamma \in K} SW(\xi \otimes \gamma) \pmod 2.\) Here \(K\) is the set of isomorphism classes of complex line bundles on \(X\) which pull back to the trivial bundle on \(\widetilde X.\) In the ramified case, let \(\Sigma\) be the branch set and define \(J_L(\Sigma) = |c_1(L)\cdot [\Sigma]|+ [\Sigma]^2 + e_\Sigma.\) They define a \(spin^c\) structure \(\widehat \xi\) that restricts to the pull-back off the branch set and show: If \([\Sigma]^2 > 0, b^+(X) > 1, b^+(\widetilde X) > 1, H_1(X)\) has no 2-torsion and \(\xi\) is a \(spin^c\) structure on \(X\) whose determinant line bundle \(L\) satisfies \(c_1(L)\cdot PD[\Sigma] \leq 0,\) and the virtual dimension \(d_L\) and adjunction term \(J_L(\Sigma)\) both vanish, as well as assuming \([\Sigma]^2 < 2g-2, 4g-4\) is not divisible by \([\Sigma]^2,\) then there is an equality \(SW(\widehat \xi) = SW(\xi) \pmod 2.\) There is also a result given in the case when \([\Sigma]^2 = 0.\)