On the intersection forms of spin \(4\)-manifolds bounded by spherical \(3\)-manifolds (Q5946783)

Let \(Z\) be a 4-dimensional smooth orbifold with isolated singularities \(\{ x_1,\dots,x_k\}\) and with a spin structure \(c\). The main result of this paper is the determination of the local contributions to the index of the Dirac operator on \(Z\) due to the singularities (cones over spherical 3-manifolds). The present calculation uses a simple link calculus presentation of the spherical 3-manifold \(S^3/G\) (with \(G\) nonabelian) to construct a spin cobordism to the disjoint union of two lens spaces, enabling a reduction to the abelian case, already considered by \textit{Y. Fukumoto, M. Furuta} and \textit{M. Ue} [Topology Appl. 116, No. 3, 333-369 (2001; Zbl 0991.57017)]. This work is used to derive constraints on the intersection forms of spin 4-manifolds bounded by spherical 3-manifolds, and on the normal Euler numbers of embeddings \(j\) of \(\mathbb{R}\mathbb{P}^2\) into smooth 4-manifolds \(X\) with \(H_1(X;\mathbb{Z})=0\), and which are characteristic in the sense that \(j_*[\mathbb{R}\mathbb{P}^2]\) is Poincaré dual to \(w_2(X)\) in \(H_2(X;\mathbb{Z}/2\mathbb{Z})\).