English

Rational homology disk smoothings of surface singularities; the exceptional cases

Algebraic Geometry 2022-07-19 v2 Geometric Topology

Abstract

It is known (Stipsicz-Szab\'o-Wahl) that there are exactly three triply-infinite and seven singly-infinite families of weighted homogeneous normal surface singularities admitting a rational homology disk (Q\mathbb{Q}HD) smoothing, i.e., having a Milnor fibre with Milnor number zero. Some examples are found by an explicit "quotient construction", while others require the "Pinkham method". The fundamental group of the Milnor fibre has been known for all except the three exceptional families B23(p),C23(p),\mathcal B_2^3(p), \mathcal C^3_2(p), and C33(p)\mathcal C^3_3(p). In this paper, we settle these cases. We present a new explicit construction for the B23(p)\mathcal B_2^3(p) family, showing the fundamental group is non-abelian (as occurred previously only for the A4(p),B4(p)\mathcal A^4(p), \mathcal B^4(p) and C4(p)\mathcal C^4(p) cases). We show that the fundamental groups for C23(p) \mathcal C^3_2(p) and C33(p)\mathcal C^3_3(p) are abelian, hence easily computed; using the Pinkham method here requires precise calculations for the fundamental group of the complement of a plane curve.

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Cite

@article{arxiv.2108.09209,
  title  = {Rational homology disk smoothings of surface singularities; the exceptional cases},
  author = {Enrique Artal Bartolo and Jonathan Wahl},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2108.09209},
  year   = {2022}
}

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24 pages