Product formulae for Ozsváth-Szabó 4-manifold invariants (Q945619)

Donaldson theory revolutionized the study of smooth \(4\)-manifolds [\textit{S. K. Donaldson} and \textit{P. B. Kronheimer}, The geometry of four-manifolds. Oxford: Clarendon Press (1990; Zbl 0820.57002)], however computations and the gluing theorems used for them had very long and technical proofs. The discovery of basic classes by \textit{P. B. Kronheimer} and \textit{T. S. Mrowka} [Bull. Am. Math. Soc., New Ser. 30, No. 2, 215--221 (1994; Zbl 0815.57010)] made computations easier, but more importantly led to the discovery of Seiberg-Witten theory. Seiberg-Witten theory [\textit{E. Witten}, Math. Res. Lett. 1, No. 6, 769--796 (1994; Zbl 0867.57029)] provided a magically easy way to define smooth \(4\)-manifold invariants, and given the lessons learned from Donaldson theory it was not long before a very satisfactory theory for gluing Seiberg-Witten invariants was constructed. Getting to the correct \(3\)-dimensional invariants and \(4\)-dimensional relative invariants is still fairly technical in the Seiberg-Witten case [\textit{P. Kronheimer} and \textit{T. Mrowka}, Monopoles and three-manifolds. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (2007; Zbl 1158.57002)]. The next major advance was the introduction of the Heegaard-Floer theory by \textit{P. Ozsváth} and \textit{Z. Szabó} [Ann. Math. (2) 159, No.~3, 1027--1158 (2004; Zbl 1073.57009)]. This provided a wonderful way to understand the \(3\)-dimensional theory. Later Ozsváth and Szabó introduced a \(4\)-manifold invariant in the Heegaard-Floer framework [Adv. Math. 202, No.~2, 326--400 (2006; Zbl 1099.53058)]. Whereas Heegaard-Floer theory is arguably the easiest of the gauge theories in three dimensions, Seiberg-Witten theory is still easier in four dimensions. In this substantial paper, Jabuka and Mark develop gluing theory for the \(4\)-dimensional Heegaard-Floer invariants. The first theorem that they state is a formula for the invariants of a fiber sum along a pair of genus \(g>1\) surfaces with trivial normal bundle in the \(b_2^+>1\) case. The result is expressed in terms of the Heegaard-Floer analog of the Donaldson series. They also write the formula for the \(g=1\) fiber sum. These theorems are really consequences of the relative perturbed Heegaard-Floer theory that Jabuka and Mark develop in this paper, combined with their earlier computations of the \(3\)-dimensional Heegaard-Floer groups of a circle cross a surface [Adv. Math. 218, No.~3, 728--761 (2008; Zbl 1185.57010)] that are extended in this paper. Recall that the Seiberg-Witten invariants are defined via a \(\text{Spin}_c\) structure including a metric and are proved to be topological invariants when the Betti number \(b_2^+>1\). When \(b_2^+=1\), the invariants depend on the choice of a chamber in the space of perturbations and there is a wall-crossing formula expressing how the invariant changes when the perturbation moves between chambers. One major achievement of this paper is the description of the perturbed version of the Heegaard-Floer invariants. Jabuka and Mark define these invariants by introducing coefficients in the Novikov ring defined as the formal power series in \(H^1(Y;\mathbb{Z})\) with integer coefficients having only a finite number of terms \(a_gg\) with \(\langle g\cup\eta,[Y]\rangle<N\) where \(\eta\in H^2(Y;\mathbb{Z})\) is a cohomology class.