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On slice pretzel links
A link is called slice if it bounds a smooth properly embedded surface
in the 4-ball with no closed components and Euler characteristic 1. If a link
has a single component, then it is slice if and only if it is slice. One
motivation for studying such links is that the double cover of the 3-sphere
branched along a nonzero determinant slice link is a rational homology
3-sphere that bounds a rational homology 4-ball. This article aims to
generalize known results about the sliceness of pretzel knots to the
sliceness of pretzel links. In particular, we completely classify
positive and negative pretzel links that are slice, and obtain partial
classifications of 3-stranded and 4-stranded pretzel links that are
slice. As a consequence, we obtain infinite families of Seifert fiber
spaces that bound rational homology 4-balls