Unexpected Stein fillings, rational surface singularities and plane curve arrangements (Q6157233)

It is well known that many singularities satisfy the following property: all Stein fillings of their links come from the corresponding Milnor fibers or minimal resolutions (see, e.g., [\textit{H. Ohta} and \textit{K. Ono}, J. Reine Angew. Math. 565, 183--205 (2003; Zbl 1044.57008)], [\textit{H. Park} et al., Adv. Math. 329, 1156--1230 (2018; Zbl 1390.14018)]). The authors use the term ``unexpected'' for those Stein fillings that do not occur in this way. In the paper under review the case of rational surface singularities with reduced fundamental cycle is analyzed in detail (cf. [\textit{T. de Jong} and \textit{D. van Straten}, J. Algebr. Geom. 3, No. 1, 117--172 (1994; Zbl 0822.14004)]). Among other things, the authors establish the above property for such singularities whose exceptional curves in their minimal resolutions have self-intersections at most $-5$. However, it turns that there are other singularities in this class which admit unexpected Stein fillings. In addition, they discuss similar problems for some types of singularities studied previously (see, e.g., [\textit{T. de Jong} and \textit{D. van Straten}, Duke Math. J. 95, No. 3, 451--522 (1998; Zbl 0958.14004)], [\textit{A. Akhmedov} and \textit{B. Ozbagci}, J. Singul. 8, 39--49 (2014; Zbl 1300.57025)]. Indeed, the authors' arguments show that one of the main reasons for the occurrence of unexpected fillings is the existence of several smoothing components in the basis of the minimal versal deformation of a singularity. For example, in the case of self-intersection equal to $-4$, such a singularity has at least two smoothing components (see [\textit{J. Kollár}, in: Surveys in differential geometry. Vol. I: Proceedings of the conference on geometry and topology, held at Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA, April 27--29, 1990. Providence, RI: American Mathematical Society; Bethlehem, PA: Lehigh University. 113--199 (1991; Zbl 0755.14003)]).