An obstruction to removing intersection points in immersed surfaces (Q676990)

Let \(X\) be a closed oriented 4-manifold and let \(f:\Sigma\to X\) be a smooth immersion of an oriented surface \(\Sigma\) in \(X\). If \(f\) is in general position, then \(f(\Sigma)\) will have no singularities other than normal crossings, where two patches of \(f(\Sigma)\) meet transversely at a point in \(X\). In this fine paper, the author studies the problem of when the immersion \(f\) is homotopic to an embedding (compare also two earlier papers of the author, written jointly with \textit{T. S. Mrowka} [Topology 32, 773-826 (1993; Zbl 0799.57007); 34, 37-97 (1995; Zbl 0832.57011)]). Using moduli spaces of anti-self-dual connections having a singularity along a surface, the author first extends Donaldson's construction of the polynomial invariants of a 4-manifold to the case of a pair \((X,f(\Sigma))\), where: \(b^+(X)>1\), \(b^+(X)-b^1(X)\) is odd, and \(X\) has been given a homology orientation \(\beta\). These invariants depend on two integers \(k\) and \(l\) and take the form of distinguished homogeneous polynomials \(q_{k,l}: H_2(X;\mathbb{Q})\to\mathbb{Q}\) of degree \(d(k,l)=4k+2l-(3/2)(b^+(X)-b^1(X)+1)-g(\Sigma)+1\), where \(g(\Sigma)\) is the genus of \(\Sigma\). Since \(d(k,l)=d(k-1,l+2)\), it turns useful to combine all the polynomial invariants of a given degree into a formal series: \[ R_d(s)=2^{-g(\Sigma)}\sum_{d(k,l)=d} s^{-l} q_{k,l}. \] Now each normal crossing point of \(f(\Sigma)\) in \(X\) can be given a sign, plus or minus, using the orientations of the manifolds. So let \(\tau=\tau(\Sigma)\) denote the number of double points of positive sign in \(f(\Sigma)\subset X\). The main result of the paper states that the expression \((1-s^2)^{-\tau} R_d(s)\) depends only on the homotopy class of \(f\). As a consequence, the author determines obstructions to the above-mentioned embedding problem in dimension 4, i.e. if \(\tau(\Sigma)>0\) and \(R_d(1)\neq 0\), then \(f\) is not homotopic to an embedding.