Topologically isotopic and smoothly inequivalent 2-spheres in simply connected 4-manifolds whose complement has a prescribed fundamental group (Q6596259)

An infinite collection of exotic spheres that are pairwise topologically but not smoothly isotopic, with simply connected complements, was constructed in [\textit{D. Auckly} et al., J. Lond. Math. Soc., II. Ser. 91, No. 2, 439--463 (2015; Zbl 1355.57028)], and a family of spheres that are topologically but not smoothly isotopic, but are additionally smoothly equivalent (there is a diffeomorphism of \(X\) taking one to another) was given in [\textit{H. R. Schwartz}, J. Topol. 12, No. 4, 1396--1412 (2019; Zbl 1437.57031))].\N\NThis paper gives in certain simply connected 4-manifolds examples of:\N\begin{itemize}\N\item[1.] for a fixed \(p\geq2\), an infinite family of pairwise topologically isotopic but smoothly inequivalent spheres, whose complements have the fundamental group \(\mathbb{Z}/p\),\N\item[2.] for a fixed group \(\pi\) that is the fundamental group of a certain class of \(\mathbb{Q}\)-homology 4-spheres \(M\), an infinite family of pairwise topologically equivalent but smoothly inequivalent spheres, whose complements have the fundamental group \(\pi\), or the icosahedral group,\N\item[3.] an infinite family of pairwise smoothly inequivalent nullhomotopic spheres whose complements have the fundamental group \(\mathbb{Z}\).\N\end{itemize}\N\NThe constructions are based on the following ingredients.\N\begin{itemize}\N\item[--] The author slightly modifies the Fintushel-Stern construction [\textit{R. Fintushel} and \textit{R. J. Stern}, Algebr. Geom. Topol. 11, No. 3, 1649--1699 (2011; Zbl 1234.57035)] of families of pairwise exotic 4-manifolds (by certain surgery on embedded tori) in order to obtain such an infinite exotic family of 4-manifolds \(X_n\) with fundamental group \(\mathbb{Z}/p\) (detected using Seiberg-Witten invariants).\N\item[--] Starting with a manifold \(X_n\) with \(\pi_1X_n\cong G\) and an element \(g\in G\) such that setting \(g=1\) gives the trivial group, the surgery on an embedded circle representing \(g\) gives a simply connected manifold with an embedded sphere whose complement has fundamental group \(G\). The author chooses a collection \(X_n\) so that surgery yields manifolds that are diffeomorphic to \(2\mathbb{C}P^2\#4\overline{\mathbb{C}P^2}\), but contain a family of smoothly nonequivalent spheres \(S_n\).\N\item[--] The results of \textit{R. Lee} and \textit{D. M. Wilczyński} [Comment. Math. Helv. 65, No. 3, 388--412 (1990; Zbl 0723.57015)] and \textit{I. Hambleton} and \textit{M. Kreck} [J. Reine Angew. Math. 443, 21--47 (1993; Zbl 0779.57014)] yield desired topological isotopies for the family \(S_n\) when \(G=\mathbb{Z}/p\), implying 1).\N\item[-] A result of \textit{D. Kotschick} et al. [Math. Res. Lett. 2, No. 2, 119--124 (1995; Zbl 0853.57020)] on Seiberg-Witten invariants of connected sums, yields a collection of pairwise exotic 4-manifolds \(Z_n\#M\) such that \(Z_n\#S^2\times S^2\) are diffeomorphic. If an appropriate curve exists in \(M\), then similarly as before the author gets a collection of pairwise smoothly inequivalent spheres in \(Z\#S^2\times S^2\).\N\end{itemize}