Gauge Theory and the Topology of Four-Manifolds by Robert Fri... - 9781470479725

Gauge Theory and the Topology of Four-ManifoldsAuthor(s): Robert Friedman, John W. Morgan\nFormat: Paperback\nPublisher: American Mathematical Society, United States\nImprint: American Mathematical Society\nISBN-13: 9781470479725, 978-1470479725\nSynopsis\nThe lectures in this volume provide a perspective on how 4-manifold theory was studied before the discovery of modern-day Seiberg-Witten theory. One reason the progress using the Seiberg-Witten invariants was so spectacular was that those studying $SU(2)$-gauge theory had more than ten years' experience with the subject. The tools had been honed, the correct questions formulated, and the basic strategies well understood. The knowledge immediately bore fruit in the technically simpler environment of the Seiberg-Witten theory. Gauge theory long predates Donaldson's applications of the subject to 4-manifold topology, where the central concern was the geometry of the moduli space. One reason for the interest in this study is the connec.