Moduli spaces of anti-self-dual connections on ALE gravitational instantons (Q750916)

An oriented Riemannian 4-manifold (X,g) is an asymptotically locally Euclidean manifold (abbreviated ALE) if g satisfies certain (rather intricate) asymptotic conditions. A hyper-Kähler structure on (X,g) is given by three parallel almost complex structures (I,J,K) that satisfy the quaternionic relations \(IJ=-JI=K\). The construction and classification of all ALE hyper-Kähler 4-manifolds was carried out by \textit{P. B. Kronheimer} [J. Differ. Geom. 29, No.3, 665-683 (1989; Zbl 0671.53045), ibid., 685-697 (1989; Zbl 0671.53046)]. The first section of the paper under review presents a brief summary of Kronheimer's results. This is followed by an analysis of the moduli space of anti-self-dual connections on general (not necessarily hyper-Kähler) ALE 4-manifolds, it being shown that it is a non-singular manifold that has a natural Riemannian metric. Two types of existence theorems of anti-self-dual connections on ALE 4-manifolds are derived. This analysis involves the existence theorem of \textit{C. H. Taubes} [ibid. 17, 139-170 (1982; Zbl 0484.53026)]. The behavior of the Riemannian metric on the end of the moduli space when it is 4-dimensional is investigated, and it is shown that on each end the metric is ALE. The paper concludes with an analysis of the period of certain moduli spaces.