Minimal genus in \(S^1\times M^3\)
type: Item
instance of: scholarly article
title: Minimal genus in \(S^1\times M^3\)
zbMATH Open document ID: 0917.57017
published in: Inventiones Mathematicae
publication date: 1999-07-28T00:00:00Z
review text: An important problem in 4-dimensional topology is to determine the minimal genus of an embedded surface which represents a given homology class. There have been substantial recent advances on this problem using the techniques of gauge theory, with many of the main results coming through joint work of the author and T. Mrowka. A powerful tool here is the adjunction inequality \(\chi(\Sigma) \geq \sigma \cdot \sigma+\tau \cdot \sigma\); here \(\tau\) represents a Seiberg-Witten basic class for a spin\(^c\) structure, \(\chi(\Sigma)=2g(\Sigma)-2\) for surfaces \(\Sigma\) of positive genus and square, and \(\sigma\) denotes the homology class of the surface \(\Sigma\). A similar formula was first proved by the author and \textit{T. S. Mrowka} [J. Differ. Geom. 41, No. 3, 573-734 (1995; Zbl 0842.57022)] using Donaldson polynomial invariants; the Seiberg-Witten version is due to the author and \textit{T. S. Mrowka} [Math. Res. Lett. 1, No. 6, 797-808 (1994; Zbl 0851.57023)] and to \textit{J. W. Morgan, Z. Szabo}, and \textit{C. H. Taubes} [A product formula for the Seiberg-Witten invariants and the generalized Thom conjecture, J. Differ. Geom. 44, No. 4, 706-788 (1996)]. This result is not as useful when the Seiberg-Witten invariants contain little information, such as manifolds of the form \(S^1 \times M^3\) which are studied here. The main result of this paper is a similar inequality \(\chi_{-}(\Sigma) \geq \sigma \cdot \sigma+\varepsilon \cdot \sigma\) for manifolds \(S^1 \times M^3\), where \(M^3\) is a closed, irreducible, oriented 3-manifold carrying a smooth, taut foliation \({\mathcal F}\) by oriented 2-dimensional leaves and \(\varepsilon \) is the pullback of the Euler class \(e(T{\mathcal F})\) of the foliation. Here \(\chi_{-}(\Sigma)\) is defined for a (not necessarily connected) surface \(\Sigma\) as the sum \(\sum_{g_i > 0} 2g_i-2\), with \(g_i\) denoting the genus of the component \(\Sigma_i\) of the surface. Results of \textit{W. P. Thurston} [Mem. Am. Ma…
reviewed by: Terry Lawson
Mathematics Subject Classification ID: 57N13
Mathematics Subject Classification ID: 57R95
Mathematics Subject Classification ID: 57N10
Mathematics Subject Classification ID: 57R15
Mathematics Subject Classification ID: 53C07
Mathematics Subject Classification ID: 53C15
Mathematics Subject Classification ID: 57R57
zbMATH DE Number: 1275784
zbMATH Keywords: foliation
zbMATH Keywords: Seiberg-Witten equations
zbMATH Keywords: monopole
zbMATH Keywords: adjunction inequality
author: P. B. Kronheimer
MaRDI profile type: MaRDI publication profile
full work available at URL: s002220050279
OpenAlex ID: W177914055
DOI: 10.1007/S002220050279
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description: scientific article; zbMATH DE number 1275784