Monopole Floer homology for rational homology 3-spheres (Q616593)

Adapting Floer's original ideas to monopoles, the author gives a new construction of monopole Floer homology for \(\text{spin}^c\) rational homology 3-spheres. It seems likely that these are isomorphic to the groups of Kronheimer and Mrowka, when differences in grading conventions are taken into account. The starting point is the ``irreducible'' Floer cohomology \(HF^*(Y,m)\), where the parameter \(m\) runs through a set \(\mathfrak{m}(Y)\) of the form \(m_0 + \mathbb{Z}\) with \(m_0 \in \mathbb{Q}\) and indicates which chamber is being used for the metric and perturbation. By taking suitable limits of \(HF^*(Y,m)\) as \(m \to \pm\infty\), the author obtains invariants \(\overline{HF}^*(Y)\) and \(\underline{HF}^*(Y)\) of the \(\text{spin}^c\) 3-manifold \(Y\). These ``equivariant'' Floer cohomology groups are modules over a polynomial ring and are related by a long exact sequence involving a third module which is essentially the module of Laurent polynomials. Exactness is established by geometric means, without recourse to homological algebra. In the case of coefficients in a field \(\mathbb{F}\) of characteristic \(p\), the author gives a precise description of how \(HF^*(Y,m;\mathbb{F})\) depends on \(m\) in terms of an invariant \(h_p(Y) \in \mathfrak{m}(Y)\), which can be read off from the above exact sequence. Let \(X\) be a \(\text{spin}^c\) smooth closed 4-manifold with \(b_1(X) = 1\) which contains a nonseparating smoothly embedded rational homology 3-sphere \(Y\). In the case \(b^+(X) > 1\), the author expresses the Seiberg-Witten invariant of \(X\) as the Lefshetz number of a certain endomorphism of the reduced Floer cohomology of \(Y\). This endomorphism is obtained by cutting \(X\) open along \(Y\), and considering the corresponding cobordism map. If \(b^+(X) = 0\), then, for certain \(\text{spin}^c\) structures on \(X\), this Lefshetz number yields an invariant of \(X\) (i.e., is independent of \(Y\)). If in addition \(Y\) is an integral homology sphere or \(b_2(X) = 0\), then \(h_p(Y)\) is an invariant of \((X,e)\), where \(e\) denotes the generator of \(H_3(X;\mathbb{Z})\) represented by \(Y\).