SO(3)-instantons on \(L(p,q)\times {\mathbb{R}}\) (Q808043)

The study of instantons on manifolds of the form \(M^ 3\times R\) is an essential tool in the evaluation of Floer homology groups, as this is equivalent to solving the gradient flow equation for the Chern-Simons functional. The paper here takes the case of a Lens space \(M^ 3=L(p,q)\) and derives existence and dimension formulae as well as some explicit computations of moduli spaces of instantons. The technique is a relatively familiar one - by passing to the universal covering one obtains an instanton on \(S^ 3\times R\) which conformally compactifies to \(S^ 4\). Thus the appropriate instanton moduli spaces are fixed points of cyclic group actions on the classical instanton spaces. A whole range of results can now be brought into play - equivariant index theorems, ADHM construction, twistor methods etc. - and with some considerable skill, and an equivariant version of Donaldson's grafting procedure, the results are obtained.