An SO(3)-monopole cobordism formula relating Donaldson and Seiberg-Witten invariants

We prove an analogue of the Kotschick-Morgan conjecture in the context of SO(3) monopoles, obtaining a formula relating the Donaldson and Seiberg-Witten invariants of smooth four-manifolds using the SO(3)-monopole cobordism. The main technical difficulty in the SO(3)-monopole program relating the Seiberg-Witten and Donaldson invariants has been to compute intersection pairings on links of strata of reducible SO(3) monopoles, namely the moduli spaces of Seiberg-Witten monopoles lying in lower-level strata of the Uhlenbeck compactification of the moduli space of SO(3) monopoles [arXiv:dg-ga/9710032]. In this monograph, we prove --- modulo a gluing theorem which is an extension of our earlier work in [arXiv:math/9907107] --- that these intersection pairings can be expressed in terms of topological data and Seiberg-Witten invariants of the four-manifold. This conclusion is analogous to the Kotschick-Morgan conjecture concerning the wall-crossing formula for Donaldson invariants of a four-manifold with $b_2^+=1$; that wall-crossing formula and the resulting structure of Donaldson invariants for four-manifolds with $b_2^+=1$ were established, assuming the Kotschick-Morgan conjecture, by Goettsche [arXiv:alg-geom/9506018] and Goettsche and Zagier [arXiv:alg-geom/9612020]. In this monograph, we reduce the proof of the Kotschick-Morgan conjecture to an extension of previously established gluing theorems for anti-self-dual SO(3) connections (see [arXiv:math/9812060] and references therein). Since the first version of our monograph was circulated, applications of our results have appeared in the proof of Property P for knots by Kronheimer and Mrowka [arXiv:math/0311489] and work of Sivek on Donaldson invariants for symplectic four-manifolds [arXiv:1301.0377].Comment: x + 229 page

Virtual Morse-Bott index, moduli spaces of pairs, and applications to topology of smooth four-manifolds

In Feehan and Leness (2020), we introduced an approach to Morse-Bott theory, called virtual Morse-Bott theory, for Hamiltonian functions of circle actions on closed, real analytic, almost Hermitian spaces. In the case of Hamiltonian functions of circle actions on closed, smooth, almost Kaehler (symplectic) manifolds, virtual Morse-Bott theory coincides with classical Morse-Bott theory due to Bott (1954) and Frankel (1959). Positivity of virtual Morse-Bott indices implies downward gradient flow in the top stratum of smooth points in the analytic space. In this monograph, we apply our method to the moduli space of SO(3) monopoles over a complex, Kaehler surface, we use the Atiyah-Singer Index Theorem to compute virtual Morse-Bott indices of all critical strata (Seiberg-Witten moduli subspaces), and we prove that these indices are positive in a setting motivated by the conjecture that all closed, smooth four-manifolds of Seiberg-Witten simple type obey the Bogomolov-Miyaoka-Yau inequality.Comment: 167+xii pages, 1 figure. Supporting background material drawn from our monograph arXiv:math/020304

PU(2) monopoles and a conjecture of Marino, Moore, and Peradze

In this article we show that some of the recent results of Marino, Moore, and Peradze (math.DG/9812042, hep-th/9812055) -- in particular their conjecture that all closed, smooth four-manifolds with b_2^+ > 1 (and Seiberg-Witten simple type) are of `superconformal simple type' -- can be understood using a simple mathematical argument via the PU(2)-monopole cobordism of Pidstrigach and Tyurin (dg-ga/9507004) and results of the first and third authors (dg-ga/9712005, dg-ga/9709022).Comment: 13 pages, 1 figure. Improved exposition, typographical slips corrected, figure and references added. Minor correction on page 2. To appear in Mathematical Research Letter

SO(3) Monopoles, Level-One Seiberg-Witten Moduli Spaces, and Witten's Conjecture in Low Degrees

We prove Witten's formula relating the Donaldson and Seiberg-Witten series modulo powers of degree $c+2$, with $c=-{1/4}(7\chi+11\sigma)$, for four-manifolds obeying some mild conditions, where $\chi$ and $\sigma$ are their Euler characteristic and signature. We use the moduli space of SO(3) monopoles as a cobordism between a link of the Donaldson moduli space of anti-self-dual SO(3) connections and links of the moduli spaces of Seiberg-Witten monopoles. Gluing techniques allow us to compute contributions from Seiberg-Witten moduli spaces lying in the first (or `one-bubble') level of the Uhlenbeck compactification of the moduli space of SO(3) monopoles.Comment: Minor corrections; details added. Topology and its Applications, 91 pages, to appea