Stable diffeomorphism groups of 4-manifolds (Q1000616)

In the article under discussion the author introduces a localization of the category of \(n\)-manifolds by formally inverting the connected sum construction with a chosen \(n\)-manifold \(Y\). On the level of automorphism groups, this leads to the stable diffeomorphism groups of \(n\)-manifolds. For \(0\)-dimensional and \(2\)-dimensional manifolds the construction is connected to the stable homotopy groups of spheres and the stable mapping class groups of Riemann surfaces. In dimension four there are many candidates for the \(n\)-manifold \(Y\) to choose from. The author studies the cases \(Y=\overline{\mathbb C P}^2\), \(Y=S^2\times S^2\) and \(Y=K3\) and the relation to (stable) Bauer-Furuta invariants.