Rational homology spheres and the four-ball genus of knots (Q817574)

The authors examine the question: When does the rational \(3\)-sphere \(Y\) bound some \(4\)-manifold \(X\) equipped with some definite intersection pairing? They utilize the inequality \[ c_1(\mathfrak{s})^2 + rk(H^2(X;\mathbb Z)) \leqslant 4d(Y,\mathfrak{s}| _Y). \] Here \(\mathfrak{s} \in Spin^{C}(X), c_1 \) is the first Chern class and \(d(Y,\mathfrak{t})\) the correction term from the paper which is the source of the inequality, \textit{P. Ozsváth} and \textit{Z. Szabó} [Adv. Math. 173, 179--261 (2003; Zbl 1025.57016)]. They note both sides of the inequality are congruent mod \(8\). The authors describe an algorithm which determines for each manifold \(X\) with a given second Betti number whether \(X\) gives rise to an equivariant map for which the inequality and congruence hold for each \(\mathfrak{s} \in Spin^{C}(X)\). The algorithm is utilized to study the \(4\)-ball genus of a link, and thereby find new bounds on the \(4\)-ball genus of Montesinos links.