Local holomorphic Euler characteristic and instanton decay (Q930815)

The authors consider rational surface singularities, which arise from contracting an exceptional line \(l \cong {\mathbb P}^2\) inside a smooth surface, and calculate the local holomorphic Euler characteristic in a small neighborhood of the singular point using a \texttt{Macaulay 2} program. More precisely, they calculate the local charge, i.e. the loss of total charge suffered by constracting \(l\), of a given instanton bundle \(E\). This is then used to tackle the main task, the question of existence and decay of instantons, via Kobayashi-Hitchin correspondence. In particular, the authors prove non-existence of instantons with certain local charges and show that \(l^2\) poses an obstruction for instanton decay.