Donaldson 1989 Connected Sums of Self-Dual Manifolds and Deformations of Singular Spaces

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Connected sums of self-dual manifolds and deformations of singular spaces
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Nonlinearity 2 (1989) 197-239. Printed in the UK
Connected sums of self-dual manifolds and deformations of singular spaces

S Donaldsont and R Friedman# t Mathematical Institute, University of Oxford, 24-29
St Giles, Oxford OX1 3LB, UK
$ Department of Mathematics, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, USA
Received 8 July 1988 Accepted by R Penrose
Abstract. We give general conditions under which the connected sum of two self-dual
Riemannian4-manifolds again admits a self-dualstructure. Our techniques combine twistor methods with the deformation theory of compact complex spaces. They are related on the one hand to the analytical approach which has been used recently by Floer, and on the other hand to the algebro-geometricresults of Hitchin and Poon. We give specific examples involving the projective plane and K3 surfaces.
AMs classification scheme number: 32699
1. Introduction
The decomposition of the 2-forms on an oriented Riemannian 4-manifold into self-dual and anti-self-dual components has many striking geometrical consequences. One of these is the existence of a special class of Riemannian 4-manifolds, the self-dual or half conformally flat manifolds. To define these we think of the curvature tensor of a 4-manifold as a symmetric tensor in A@ A and, given an orientation, decompose the 2-forms into the f self-dual parts (eigenspaces of the * -operator) A= A+ CBA-. (1.1) The self-dual and anti-self-dual parts W + , W - of the Weyl curvature are defined to be the components of the Riemann curvature tensor in sg(A+), sg(A-) respectively, where s; denotes the symmetric trace-free 2-tensors. (The traces of the curvature on A+, A- are both equal to half the scalar curvature, and the components in A+ 0 Acan be identified with the trace-free Ricci tensor.) A self-dual metric is one for which W - is everywhere zero. The condition depends, like the Weyl curvature and the * -operator on A, only on the conformal class of the Riemannian metric. Self-dual manifolds can be studied using techniques of complex geometry via the Penrose twistor construction. This interprets a self-dual manifold as a set of lines in its associated twistor space, which is a three-dimensional complex manifold. In the
$ Research partially supported by NSF grant DMS 87 03569 and the Alfred P Sloan Foundation.
0951 -771 5/89/01
O m + ~ ~ $ 0 2 . 5 0 1989 IOP Publishing Ltd and LMS Publishing Ltd 0
197
198
S Donaldson and R Friedman
context of Riemannian geometry this theory was first developed in detail by Atiyah et a1 [l],and we shall recall the main points in 03 below. As well as the Riemannian (or more strictly conformal) structure, the solutions of many field equations on a self-dual manifold, notably the self-dual Yang-Mills equations, can be translated into holomorphic data on the twistor space. Until recently only a few examples of compact self-dual manifolds were known; these were: (i) conformally flat manifolds, e.g. S4; (ii) The Fubini-Study metric on CP2 (and quotients of its non-compact dual
CW);
(iii) The Yau metrics on a K3 surface I?, with the standard orientation reversed (these metrics are both self-dual and Ricci flat). So it was a great advance when Y S Poon constructed, using twistor methods, families of self-dual structures on the connected sums CP2# CP2 and CP2# CP2 #@P2,[20,21]. Even more recently A Floer has shown, using quite different techniques, that there are self-dual metrics on the connected sums nCPz of any number of copies of CP2 [6]. The purpose of the present paper is to give a reasonably general theory for constructing self-dual structures on connected sums using twistor techniques. If X1, X z are self-dual manifolds with twistor spaces Z1, Z2 we look for metrics on the connected sum X I # X , which are close to the given structures outside a small neck, where the connected sum is made. More precisely we find a twistor translation of this idea; constructing a certain singular complex space 2 using Z1, Z2 and looking for twistor spaces made by small smoothings of 2. One of our main results is that if such smoothings exist then they always represent the twistor spaces of self-dual structures on the connected sum (see 94 for precise statements and results). There is a general theory of deformations of singular spaces, extending the Kodaira-Spencer-Kuranishi theory for complex manifolds, which was developed by, among others, Douady, Grauert, Forster and Knorr and Palamadov. The most relevant parts of this, together with other background in complex analytic geometry are summarised in 302 and 5 below. Applying the general theory to the situation that arises with twistor spaces we get criteria under with X I # X z admits a self-dual structure. We refer to 00 5 and 6 for precise statements of the general results. Roughly, we associate with X1, X 2 vector spaces Xx,, which serve as obstruction Xx2 spaces for the deformation problem. The connected sum admits a self-dual structure if there is a zero of a certain map Y into Xxl 63 Xxz, and we can obtain information about this through an explicit approximation Yz (which should be thought of the leading term in Y as the neck of the connected sum shrinks to zero radius). As particular applications we get an alternative proof of Floers result. Theorem 1.2. For any n > 0 the connected sum n@P2admits a self-dual metric. This is a simple consequence of our theory since, as we shall see, XCpz is zero. Moreover we shall show in 07 that for n = 2, 3 the self-dual structures we construct agree with some of those found by Poon. More complicated examples, when the obstructions do not vanish, are furnished by connected sums with K as a summand. In $6 we shall prove the following new result. Theorem 1.2. For N > 0 and n 2 2N + 1 the connected sum N K # nCP2 admits a self-dual metric.
Connected sums of self-dual manifolds
199
We shall now make some brief remarks on the relation of this work to other points of view. First, we should admit that despite its length this paper is at the key points heavily dependent on the work of other authors. This is an inevitable consequence of the fact that we are applying the substantial machinery of deformation theory. On the other side of the coin, however, some of our results apply to deformations of general normal crossing singularities, and it is interesting to see how the abstract theory works out in detail for these examples (compare [19]). Second, let us point out that there are clear and detailed parallels between our approach and that of Floer, which latter can in principle be extended to general connected sums. Both approaches construct self-dual structures by deformation theory methods, and both give information about open sets in the moduli spaces of such self-dual structures in terms of explicit parameters-the points where the connected sums are made and certain gluing data. It seems certain that the constructions are essentially equivalent and that both can be refined to describe precisely what parts of the moduli spaces are constructed in this way. In this direction we explain in 03 how the obstruction spaces which arise for us as sheaf cohomology groups agree with the obstructions one would expect to encounter in Floers approach. Third, we should mention that all of this discussion can be carried over to the case of self-dual connections, where the theory is rather better understood. Floers starting point was the work of Taubes on the construction of concentrated self-dual connections [24,25]; in general we know that there is an obstruction theory for the existence of such connections, that we obtain in this way coordinates on neighbourhoods of certain points at infinity in a compactification of the moduli space, and that the same techniques apply to self-dual connections over connected sums [3]. We shall explain at the relevant points how the ideas of this paper can be taken over to give a twistor approach to some of this theory (here one can compare the recent work of Gieseker [lo]). Fourth, we remark that deformation theory of singular spaces has previously been applied by P N Topiwala in [26] to construct the twistor spaces of Yau metrics on K3 surfaces. Our approach follows his in general outline but differs in detail; for example Topiwala emphasises the Ricci-flat condition which leads to a special class of twistor spaces. However, one could hope that the two could be united into a general theory, since Topiwalas construction can be interpreted as a connected sum across the RP3s rather than the S3s. In this direction we mention the fact, pointed out by P J Kronheimer [MI, that Poon finds a moduli space of self-dual structures on 2CP2which is diffeomorphic to an open interval ( 0 , l ) . One end of this makes up the structures found by our method, or Floers, as a connected sum with a small neck. The other end can be interpreted as a degeneration of 2CP2of a broadly similar kind involving a generalised connected sum across a copy of RP3 (in fact 2CP2 = V Uwp where V is a disc bundle over S 2 with boundary Kip3).This V example suggests that it might be possible to develop a general theory for compactifying moduli spaces of self-dual metrics, analogous to that known, thanks to the results of Uhlenbeck [27] for connections.
2. Deformations and formal neighbourhoods

In this section we will summarise briefly some of the techniques and formalism which will be used throughout the paper. These have to do with linearisations of
200
various geometric objects, the linear or infinitesimal versions being expressed in terms of sheaf cohomology. For all details we refer to [7,8, 15,16, 181.
2.1. Extensions
One of the simplest examples in which cohomology appears is the problem of classifying extensions of vector bundles. Let W be a compact complex manifold and E, E be holomorphic vector bundles over W. The exact sequences of holomorphic bundles O+ E + E+ E+ 0 (2.1) over W are classified (up to equivalence) by the vector space H1(Hom(E, E)). To see this we note that locally in W any sequence (2.1) splits holomorphically, and two splittings differ by an automorphism A : E @ E+ E @ E of the form
(2.2)
A(e,e) = (e
+ a(e), err)
where a is a bundle map from E to E. If we cover W by patches W =UU, and choose splittings on each patch, the comparison of these splittings on the overlaps U, n U, yields a Cech cocycle: () a , ampE Hom(E, E)\uwnufi which represents the extension class in H(Hom(E, E)).
2.2. Deformations of complex manifolds

A deformation of the compact complex manifold W parametrised by a (possibly singular) complex space T, containing a base point to, is a complex space W and holomorphic map
p:W+T (2-3) such that the fibre p-(to) is biholomorphically equivalent to W. Technically, we require p to be a flat map-in most of our examples T will be smooth and then we can suppose that p is a fibration of differentiable manifolds. Also we are only concerned here with arbitrarily small neighbourhoods of the base point to in T , so it would be more accurate to talk about germs of spaces and maps. Given one deformation over T as above and a holomorphic map f : ( S , so)+ ( T , to) we get an induced deformation f * ( W )over S. A deformation is versal or semi-universal if any other can be induced from it by a suitable map f. It is universal if the map is unique. The main result of the Kodaira-Spencer-Kuranishi deformation theory for compact complex manifolds is that a semi-universal deformation always exists, and can be described in terms of cohomology. Let Ow be the sheaf of holomorphic vector fields on W. The global sections @(Ow) form the Lie algebra of the group of holomorphic automorphisms of W. The higher cohomology enters as follows: there is a holomorphic map @ whose domain is a neighbourhood of 0 in H1(Ow)and which maps to H 2 ( O w ) ;with @ and d@ both vanishing at 0, such that T = @-(O)
201
is the base of a semi-universal deformation of W . If Ho(@,) = 0 this is actually a universal deformation. (In future we will ignore the fact that Q need only be defined near 0 and just write Q, :H'(Ow)+ H2(@,).) The cohomology group H ( , enters into the deformation theory through the I@) Kodaira-Spencer map, defined as follows. Let p : 7 j f + A be a deformation of W over a disc ACC. Then, identifying p-'(O) with W , we get an exact sequence of holomorphic vector bundles over W : O+C+T*W(,+T*W-+O (2.4) since the normal bundle of W in 7 j f is trivial. This leads to an extension class in H'(Hom(T*W, C)) = H ( , , as described in 02.1. The Kodaira-Spencer map '@) ' assigns this class in H to the deformation or, more generally, for any deformation f(,. over a base S it is a natural linear map from the tangent space (TS),, to I1@) For the versa1 deformation it is just the derivative of the inclusion map taking T to H . H ( , is the Zariski tangent space to T at 0, and so to the moduli space of ' I@) complex structures at the given point, insofar as the latter exists. To go in the other direction we introduce infinitesimal deformations. Let A be a of submanifold of a complex manifold X.The nth formal neighbourhood A(") A in X is the space A equipped with the sheaf of rings:
(2.5) where SA is the ideal sheaf of A in Ox.For example if A is the origin in X = C, A(") carries the truncated polynomial ring: C[t]ltn+'.By an 'nth-order thickening' of A we mean a sheaf of rings on A which locally has this form. That is, the structure sheaf R of the space is locally isomorphic to
OA(n)=
Ox/$:"
for some vector space V. By a first-order deformation of W we mean a first-order thickening W ( ' ) of w and map p : W(')+ T ( ' ) ,where T ( ' ) is a thickened point; for example, W ( ' ) could be the first formal neighbourhood of W in a genuine deformation. Now given a class e in H'(C3,) we construct the corresponding extension O+ @+ ET T*W +0 and let R be the sheaf of rings
R = {(f, E ow, C a)f Y
E
O ( J 9 I df = d4).
Then R represents a first-order deformation of W (over the 'double origin' in C). In this way we get a universal first-order deformation over the double origin in H'(@,). The map Q, represents the obstruction to extending this thickened space to a genuine deformation. The second-order term, Q2 say, in the Taylor series of Q has a simple interpretation. It is the quadratic map Q2(v) = 4 [ U , v] given by combining the Lie bracket on vector fields with the cup product H' 6 H1+ H 2 . In concrete 3 I@) terms, if we cover our manifold W by charts U, and a class in H ( , is represented by a cocycle ( v m pof vector fields on the intersections, we let f n p ( t )= exp(t va8)and ) deform the manifold, to first order, by composing the overlap maps ,gap, which glue the charts together, with the f & ( t ) . The deformed maps gas(t) satisfy the = consistency condition gLYP(t)gSY(t)g n y ( t ) to first order in t on the triple overlaps and the t2 term gives a Cech representative for Q2.
202
2.3. Deformations of submanifolds

Now suppose that W is a compact complex submanifold of an ambient manifold V (which need not be compact). Let vw+ W be the normal bundle. We look at deformations of W among complex submanifolds of V , i.e. subspaces W of V x T ( T a parameter space) for which the projection map p : W + T is flat and with p-'(t,) = W x to. First-order deformations are parametrised by Ho(vW) obstrucand tions are encountered in H'(vw). The complete picture is described by a map @ : H o ( v W ) +H ' ( v W ) , much as before. More generally we can consider deformations of the pair (V, W). We let Ov,wbe the sheaf of holomorphic vector fields on V which are tangent to W along W. This fits into a exact sequence:
o+
O,,+
O + Ow(vw)+ 0. v
(2.7)
If V is also compact the groups H'(Ov,w) have the same significance for the deformations of the pair as the Hi(@,)do in the absolute case. (If the versa1 deformation Zr of V is smooth one can study this relative case by considering deformations of the copy of W in Y ; cf 34.)
2.4. Vector bundles

If E+ W is a holomorphic vector bundle the first-order deformations of E are parametrised by H'(End E ) and obstuctions are encountered in H2(End E ) . The semi-universal deformation (a locally free sheaf over T X W) has base T = <p-'(O) where @ : H 1 + H 2 . This can be reduced to the case in 32.1 of compact spaces if we treat separately the deformations of the line bundle Amax(,) (which are very well known), and the projective bundle P = P(E)T, W. We have an exact sequence:
(2.8) of sheaves over P , where Oplw denotes the vertical vector fields. Now any small deformation of P is still a bundle of projective spaces (to see this use 32.3 to show that the fibres deform with P ) , so the . H ' ( P ;0,) are the relevant spaces for analysing the simultaneous deformations of the bundle P , and hence E , and the base space W . On the other hand the Leray spectral sequence for r gives: = H'(P; r*(Ow)) H ' ( W ; O w ) and H ' ( P ;Oplw) H ' ( W ; Endo E ) , where End, E = denotes the trace-free endomorphisms. So the long exact sequence of (2.8) becomes:
O+ OflW Of + r*(Ow)+ 0 +
+Hi( Endo E)+ H'(P; Of)+ H ' ( W ; O w ) H+'(W; End, E)+. W; A
(2.9)
This expresses the relations between the deformations of E (with W fixed), the deformations of W (regardless of E ) and the deformations of the pair. The boundary map 6 in (2.9), connecting the deformations of W and E , can be described as follows. There is a tautological class CE in H ' ( W ; End E I8 S2L) and 6 is multiplication by CE, followed by the contraction Ow I8 Qb+ Ow and projection to trace-free part in End E. In Cech cohomology gE can be defined by a cocycle: hi; dh,,
203
where the h,, are a system of transition functions for E relative to local trivialisations. (In Dolbeault cohomology EE is the class of the curvature of a compatible connection on E, the curvature being an End-E-valued (1,l) form.)
2.5. Real structures

If W is a complex manifold, as above, and Ow is its structure sheaf, the ringed space (W, is again a complex manifold which we will just denote by W. Local holomorphic functions on W are the conjugates of holomorphic functions on W. A real structure on W is a C" involution a : W-, W which induces an isomorphism of If W has such a real structure a we can look at ringed spaces (W, Ow)+ (W, real deformations of (W, a): that is, commutative diagrams
ow)
ow).
T *T where W+ T is a deformation as before and a, t are real structures, agreeing with the given one on W.
P
(2.10)
Lemma 2.1. Let a be a real structure on the compact complex manifold W and suppose that the versa1 deformation W is actually universal. Then the deformation yd+ has a real structure t. Moreover the action of t on the Zariski tangent Tred space is compatible under the Kodaira-Spencer map with the natural antilinear map a* from H to itself, induced by a. (Here Zreddenotes the reduction of an analytic ' space 2.) Proof. This is a simple formal consequence of the universality assumption. The to map p : W-, T induces a map, also called p , from Yd Tred,For any reduced ? complex analytic space Z we can define 2 analogously to A above. Then p yields a map p : pd-+ Fred. which is a deformation of W.Using a we may identify this with a deformation of W . By the versality of W we get a Cartesian diagram:
restricting to the given a on the central fibre. Iterating a we obtain
Wred
02
' vf
where now a2 is the identity on the central fibre. We now invoke the fact that ? is f the universal deformation. This implies that t2is the identity on the base space, and so the deformation has a real structure. By naturality the involution t acts by a* on the Zariski tangent space H'(Ow).
204
Remarks. ( a ) In our application of this idea we will be able to get around the universality assumption-see 94. ( b ) We can also show that the embedding of Tredin H 1 can be chosen so that z is precisely given by the conjugation map U * on the ambient space. Moreover we can suppose that Y is chosen to be a 'real' map, compatible with the conjugations U* on H 1 and H 2 . For the quadratic part Y2this follows from the compatibility of c 7 with a bracket on vector fields; one should note, however, that Y itself, and the embedding of T in H', is not canonical so some care is needed. (c) The proof of lemma 2.1 shows that if l f + S is an arbitrary deformation of W with real structures U, z over a reduced base then the deformation and real structure can be pulled back from T by a unique map. It seems likely that versa1 deformations exist in the category of real spaces over (possibly non-reduced) complex spaces with real structure (suitably defined in case there are nilpotent elements in the structure sheaf). If this were true we could avoid any universality assumptions. ( d ) We can, or course, set up similar statements for the deformations of bundles and submanifolds in the presence of real structures.
2.6. Description of formal neighbourhoods

Let W(")be an nth-order thickening of a complex manifold W , for example a formal neighbourhood of W in an ambient manifold V . We will describe briefly a theory, due to Griffiths [ l l ] , which compares W'") with a 'flat' model. First the tangent bundle T of W'"' is defined; it is a vector bundle over W. (If W'") is the formal neighbourhood of W in V , and n 2 1, T is the restriction of 7V to W.) We have a normal bundle vw and an exact sequence
O-.
TW + T + vw+0 .
(2.11)
of bundles over W . The nth-order formal neighbourhood F(") of the zero section in vw is the flat model. The structure sheaf S'") of Fc") is
S'"' = ( 3 Ow(sj(v&)). 3
jSn
(2.12)
We have inclusions W("-l) c W'"), F("-') c F'"' and if R'") is the structure sheaf of W'") the kernel of R(")-. R("-') is identified with OW(f(v&))(functions vanishing to order n - 1 along W). Suppose we have found an isomorphism of W("-') with F("-'), we look for the obstruction to extending this to an an on W("-'). The case n = 1 is special; if we assume is the identity then an isomorphism a, is equivalent to a splitting of the exact sequence (2.11). The obstruction is the extension class w1 in H'(TW 631 k ) . If n > 1 we have fixed a splitting T = TW Cl3 vW. v The automorphisms of S'") fixing ~ " ( v ; )and inducing the identity on can be written $J = 1+ ) where 3 :S("")-.s"(v&) I is a derivation, q ( f g ) = q ( f ) g + f q ( g ) . Such a q!~factors uniquely as
where d is the natural derivative and a is an Ow map. Now we can certainly find a,, locally in W, and comparing the different choices on the overlaps U, n U, of a
2 05
suitable cover we get a Cech cocycle
O(T @ . n ( G ) l L l , " U J . This represents the obstruction class w, in H ' ( ( T W ( 3 v W ) 3 s s " ( ~ & ) ) . If it vanishes 3 , the possible choices for a form an affine space modelled on H o ( ( W @ v W )3
am/3
(a@1
f(y&)).
More explicitly, if W'") is the formal neighbourhood of W in V , we choose local EA) coordinates for V around W of the form (zi; where the zi are coordinates on W and the EA are in the normal directions. Two choices of such coordinates compare by
(2'7
5') = ( ~ ' ( zh)(,z ) 5 )+ (et(z', 5'1, en(z', 5'))
(2.13)
where we have omitted subscripts i, for clarity. A cover by such coordinate systems in which the e,, e, vanish to order n - 1 along W (5' = 0) gives a trivialisation of and then the e,,e, on the overlaps are a cocycle, for the tangential and normal components, respectively, of 0. The matrix-valued function , h ( z ) represents a transition function in the normal bundle. , We will need a few simple facts about these obstructions 0. First, suppose that W moves in a one parameter family W, in V , as in 02.3, t E A and WO W. Then the = derivative of this family of submanifolds is a normal vector field:
2/ E H 0 ( V W ) .
(2.14)
On the other hand the derivative of the family, viewed as abstract manifolds lies in H'(0,). This is equal to the image of 2r 3 w1 under the map
I p ( Y w ) 3 H ' ( Z w
3 Y&)+ H ' ( T W ) = H'(0,).
(2.15)
We also have a family of normal bundles Yr+ W,. Suppose w1 = 0 and we choose a W splitting Tvlw = Z @ vW. Then to first order in t we get an identification of W, with W, and we can regard the time derivative of vr as an element a,(v,) E H1(End vW).(The exact sequence (2.9) gives a way to express this rigorously, at least for the projective bundles which is all we need in our application.)
Lemma 2.2. a,(v,) is equal to the image of v 3 w2 under the composition of natural maps: f m w ) 3 H1(TvIw (8 S2(Y&)-+ H1( Tvlw (8 (Yw 3 s2( &))-+. . . . . . += HI( Tvlw 3 Y&)+ H1(vW3 Y & ) = H'(End vW).
The other point we need to take up is the variation of the 0 under change in , of ,' the trivialisation an-1 W("-l). Specifically, suppose we change a - by an element y of H0(Zw3ss"-'(v&)) H ~ ( T ~ D " - ~ ( YRecall from 02.4 that there is a C &)). canonical element 5, of H'(End vW3 Qk).
Lemma 2.3. Under a change of a,,-l by y, the normal component of w, changes by the image of y 3 5 under the natural map:
@( Tw 3 s"-'(Y&)) 3 H'(End vW3 Qk)+ H1(End vW3 S"-'(Y&))-,.
*
..
H1(Y,
3 S " ( Y & ) ) c H1(T 8 S " ( Y & ) ) .
The verification of lemmas 2.2 and 2.3, which is largely a matter of notation, is left to the reader.
206
3 Review o twistor theory . f

3.1. Twistor spaces
The Penrose twistor transformation is a one-to-one correspondence between conformal classes of self-dual 4-manifolds X and twistor spaces Z , which are complex manifolds of dimension 3 with certain special properties. We will outline the relevant part of this correspondence, referring to [1,3,13,22] for most proofs and details. If X is an oriented Riemannian 4-manifold its twistor space 2, viewed as a C" 6-manifold, is defined to be the unit sphere bundle of &+X. So there is a fibration n :2 - X with 2-sphere fibres n-'(x) = L, = S 2 . The fibre Lx is naturally the space of compatible complex structures on T,X (with the opposite orientation to the usual one). The Riemannian connection gives a splitting of the tangent spaces of Z into horizontal and vertical subspaces and there is then a tautological almost-complex structure on Z (in the vertical directions we take the standard complex structure on S2). This almost-complex structure depends (like Z itself) only on the conformal class of the metric on X and is integrable if and only if X is self-dual. From now on we suppose that this is the case. By construction, the fibres L, are holomorphically embedded curves in 2, isomorphic to P , and with normal bundle: '
YLz =
q 1) 63 O 1). (
(3.1)
More intrinsically, let V * + X be the spin bundles (which always exist locally on X ) . They are complex 2-plane bundles with structure group SU(2). Then:
L, = P( v;)
YL, =
(3.2)
(3.3) In addition 2 posesses a free antiholomorphic involution (or 'real structure') (T, which is the antipodal map on each fibre of n The lines L, can be described then as . the 'real' lines in Z , preserved by (T. Conversely suppose that Z is a complex threefold such that: (i) there is a free anti-holomorphic involution (T on 2 ; (ii) there exists a holomorphically embedded curve L = P' in 2, preserved by (T and with normal bundle vL = O(1) CB 4 1 ) . = Then H 1 ( v L ) 0 and Ho(vL)is four dimensional so, by the deformation theory for embedded sub-manifolds (02.3) the set of deformations of L inside Z (with the same normal bundle) may be parametrised by a four-dimensional complex manifold X c (not in general compact). The involution U acts on X c ; let X c X c be the real analytic 4-manifold of real lines in 2. If x is a point in X and L, the corresponding line, the tangent space to X c at x is
n*(v:) OL,(l). (8
TX," = @(YL,) = Ho(O( 1) 63 a(1)).

Thus we can write
TX:= V: (8V ;
for two-dimensional spaces V:, V ; and the identification is natural up to scalars. This means that the tangent space of Xc has a natural complex conformal structure
207
(i.e. the equivalence class of symmetric forms on V'3 V- given by the tensor product of basis elements in A'V', A2V-), and this restricts to a Riemannian conformal structure on X . It can be shown that metrics in this conformal class are indeed self-dual, and it is not hard to verify that this construction Z+X is inverse to the previous one X+ Z [3]. Example . Let X be a Euclidean 4-space E with the flat metric. The twistor space Z(E) is the total space of the bundle:
v+3 O(1)- P = P ( v - ) . '

Here Vc, V- are the spin bundles of E. The four-parameter family of lines is just ' the space of holomorphic cross-sections of the holomorphic fibration of Z(E) over P (which should not be confused with the twistor fibration n .For every point x in E ) the inclusion of L, in Z is biholomorphic to the inclusion of the zero-section in the total space of the bundle O(1) G3 41). For a point x in a general self-dual space we may compare the jets of the conformal structure around x with this flat model, and the remaining part of the Weyl curvature Wr,' gives, or course, the leading, second-order, term in the expansion of the structure about x . In the twistor space we can look at the obstructions to trivialising the formal neighbourhoods of the line L, c Z , as described in 03.4. Not surprisingly these ideas correspond, and we get a twistor description of W + . First, the obstruction to trivialising the first-order neighbourhood L(') lies in H'(TZ 3 vL1) = 0, so a trivialisation exists. The choice in making this trivialisation is Z$'( TZ 3 v i ' ) = V + 3 V-. Given such a choice the obstruction to trivialising L(') lies in H'(TZ 3 s'(vz)), which again vanishes and the choice in making the second trivialisation lies in Ho(TZ 3 s'(v2)) = s:(V'). Then we meet an obstruction w3 to making a third trivialisation in H'( TZ 3 s3(vZ)) = H ' ( v L 3 s 3 ( v i ) ) = s3(V') 3 Vc. Here we have identified the spin bundles with their duals, which amounts to a choice of metric at x in X , within the conformal class. Now we have an irreducible decomposition:
s3(V+) 3 v+= S"V+) G3 S2(V+).
So the obstruction o3has components w ,n say, in s4(V'), s2(V+) respectively. Now the choice in trivialising L(') corresponds to the choice of the first jet of a metric, in the conformal class, on X (see [3], p 387). Then the Weyl tensor W + is defined as an element of s;(A+) = s4(V+).
Proposition 3.1. For any choice of trivialisation of L(') there is a unique trivialisation of L(') for which the component n of o3vanishes. The remaining part w of w3 then corresponds under these natural isomorphisms to the Weyl tensor W + .
For the first part of this we use the description in 03.4 of the action of sections
s E Ho(T L 3 s2(v i ) ) on the obstructions o3E H1(vL3 s3( v i ) ) :
03+
0 3
+ 5,s.
The class 5; in H'(End v 3 S2L) is id 3 [ L ]where [ L ]is the fundamental class of L in H'(S2;) = C. It follows that s-., &,s gives the standard map s ' ( V + ) ~ s 3 ( V + 3 V + = )
208
s3(V') 63 (V')* corresponding to multiplication V +63 sz(V')+ s'(V+), so there is a unique way to remove n. The identification of w with W + ,done directly, is a rather lengthy calculation which we leave for the interested reader.
3.2. Self-dual connections

A connection V on a (vector) bundle E over a Riemannian 4-manifold X is self-dual if its curvature F E A$(End E ) satisfies * F = F . Self-dual connections over self-dual manifolds can be described in terms of holomorphic data by the well known Ward correspondence. If E + Z is a holomorphic bundle over the twistor space of such a manifold which is holomorphically trivial over each real line L, we can construct a self-dual connection as follows. We define vector spaces E, for x in X by
E, = Ho(L,; ElL),. (3.6) These fit together smoothly, because the restrictions of E are trivial, to form a vector bundle over X (a 'direct image' bundle). Moreover E has a natural connection which turns out to be self-dual. The exact sequence
0+ElL63 v ~ + E p - - E I L + o (3.7) together with the vanishing of H i ( E I LC v i ) , shows that a trivialisation of 81, has a 3 We define a connection V on E by the unique extension to a trivialisation of l ? l L ~ ~ ~ . rule that Vs vanishes at x E X if the corresponding section s of E is compatible with the natural extension from L, to L:'). Conversely a self-dual connection over X lifts to a holomorphic bundle over 2. For unitary connections we need 'real' bundles E , with a holomorphic isomorphism t: E* --$ a*E inducing a positive Hermitian form on the P ( L x ; ElL,). There is a one-to-one correspondence between isomorphism classes of such bundles with real structure and unitary self-dual connections, modulo gauge equivalence. Just as for the self-dual spaces themselves, the curvature F + of a self-dual connection on X has a twistor description. The obstruction to extending a trivialisation of E I p to lies in
H'(End E
63 s2(vE,)).
and the obstruction goes over to the
This space is isomorphic to End E, 63 A : curvature under the natural isomorphism.
3.3. Linear field equations

The cohomology groups of various sheaves on the twistor space Z of a 4-manifold X have a translation (the 'Penrose transform') into solutions of linear differential equations on X. The case relevant to the obstructions in the deformation theory is
x; = H y Z , ! 63 K Z ) . &
If X , and hence 2, is compact this is dual, by the Serre duality theorem, to
(3.8)
(3.9) which is the home of the obstructions described in 02. On the other hand, staying with the Riemannian 4-manifold X , we can regard the map which assigns the
xx = H*(Z, 0,)
209
anti-self-dual Weyl curvature to a conformal structure as a nonlinear differential operator: (3.10) W - :r(A+ 3 A-)+ I'(s:(A-)). (This involves various natural identifications made using the fixed given self-dual lnetric on X , cf [6] 03.) We let D be the linearisation of this operator about 0 (i.e. the given metric), and D * the formal adjoint operator. So D * is a second-order linear differential operator:
D * :T(s;(A-)) + r(A' 3 A).
(3.11)
: : Now suppose that h is an element of X = H 1 ( Z , Q 3 K z ) and L is a twistor line in Z. Then we have two restriction maps:
H'(Z, Q:3Kz)+H1(L,
and
Q:@KZ(L)
(3.12) (3.13)
H ' ( L , 52:3KZIJ--jH1(L, Q ; @ K z ( L ) = H ' ( L , 0(-6))
and the latter space can be identified with the fibre of &A-) at the corresponding point of X . In this way h yields a section of sg(A-) over X . The following fact is now true for any twistor space (not necessarily compact). Proposition 3.2. The construction above sets up a one-to-one correspondence between X$ and the kernel of D * in r(si(A-)). The relevance to the deformation problem is that in the compact case the kernel of
D* can be regarded, using the L2 inner product, as the dual of the cokernel of D
and this latter is the space where the obstructions to deforming the solution of the partial differential equation W - ( g ) = 0 lie. Proposition 3.2 is an instance of the general Penrose transform, but unfortunately it has not been considered explicitly in the published literature. For the case when X is conformally flat, or a domain in @P2, can be deduced from the general transform for homogeneous bundles given it in [4],extending the results of [5]. Or one can use arguments like those in [13]. The corresponding theory for self-dual connections has been treated more extensively. In place of D * we now have the operator
d$ : A+(End E)+ A1(End E )
(3.14)
(see, for example, [l] and [3]) and there is a Penrose transform taking the kernel of this operator to the space
X:,v
= H'(Z, End E
3 K,)
dual to H 2 ( Z ;End E ) . This isomorphism is explained in [22, 0111. In fact, in both situations the whole Dolbeault complex on the twistor space can be related to a complex on X . For metrics this is the complex formed, in Floer's notation, by the differential operators L and D [6,03]. (We shall not in fact use proposition 3.2 in our proofs.)
4. Twistor interpretation of connected sums

4.1. The flat model
The connected sum of two oriented 4-manifolds XI, X , is defined as follows. We and coordinate charts which identify pick open neighbourhoods U,! of points x i in Xi
210
the U; with open neighbourhoods U, of 0 in R4. It is convenient to think of the U, as subsets of distinct Euclidean spaces Ei, which we can in turn identify with ( T X , ) , .We choose an orientation reversing linear isometry
p :El+
E2
(4.1)
and identify E,\{O} with E2\{0} by a map ip,A:
where A is a positive real parameter. When A is sufficiently small iP,* gives an orientation-preserving diffeomorphism between a pair of annular regions in the and the connected sum is formed by removing small balls about the points xi and identifying these annuli. It is an elementary fact that the connected sum of conformally flat manifolds again has a conformally flat structure. This follows from the conformal property of the inversion maps ip,h. Since conformally flat 4-manifolds are self-dual, and so have twistor spaces, we can translate this special case into twistor language. We begin with the punctured Euclidean space IE\{O}. Its twistor space W has a holomorphic fibration:
h- : W -+ P(V-) = CPl
(cf the example in 03). Each fibre is a copy of C2\{O} so itself fibres over easy to see that the two can be combined in a holomorphic fibration, say
C ' It is P.
(4.3)
C * 4 W h + x h - P(V') -
P(V-) = Q E .
Geometrically, QE = S2 X S2 is the Grassmannian of oriented 2-planes in IE and W can be naturally identified with the space of pairs (2-plane n in E, point in n . ) Then h+ X h- maps such a pair to its plane n. However one looks at it, W is the total space of the holomorphic C* bundle associated with the line bundle 4-1, 1) over QE. To describe the connected sum in terms of twistor spaces we must identify the map j p , h :Wl+ W,, between copies W. of W attached to Ei, induced by ip,h. First A2((p) induces an identification:
~2
:&E,
QE,.
p also gives an isomorphism between the line bundles O(--l, 1) over Q,, and 41, -1) over Q,, covering p2 (note that p2 switches the factors in the j p , Ais
given by identifying the W. fibrewise, using on each pair of C* fibres a map of the form z I+ A/z. When A is real j p , Arespects the real structures on the W and the twistor space of the connected sum is made by identifying the appropriate parts of Wl. under jp,*. For our purposes, the best way to think of this identification goes via the blow-up of the twistor spaces. Let 2, be the blow up of the twistor spaces ZE,along the lines n-'(O). Z, contains a holomorphically embedded copy of the surface Q,, the projectivised normal bundle of n-'(O). The fibration h+ x h - extends to Zi, exhibiting this space as the line bundle O(1, -1) over Qi. We use p2 to identity the
e,,).

Qi
21 1
and form the singular space with a 'normal crossing'
z = z, 2,. U
Qi
Explicitly, Z is the union of the two 'axes' in the total space of the rank-2 bundle E = O(1, -1) G3 4-1, 1) over Q = Q , = Q 2 . The map p fixes a dual pairing between the two factors and thus a quadratic form q on E , i.e.
q(&
=& I
E E O(1,
-11,
11 E O(-1, 1).
Z is the variety { q ( & q ) = 0} inside the total space of E. We now deform this to a smooth sub-variety Z(A) = {q(5, 7) = A}, which can be identified with the twistor space of the connected sum formed using for A > 0. (Actually we can take A < 0, but changing the sign of A just corresponds to replacing p by - p . ) Of course since
the construction is local we can think of the twistor space of the connected sum of any conformally flat 4-manifolds in the same way as a canonical deformation of a singular space formed by identifying the blown-up twistor spaces along a surface Q.
4.2. Standard deformations

Now let X I , X , be any compact self-dual 4-manifolds, Z , , 2, their twistor spaces and x i points in X i . Let Z j be the blow-up of Z , along n;'(xi). Suppose we fix an as orientation reversing isometry p between the tangent spaces (TX,), above. p identifies the exceptional divisors Qi in Zi. We form the singular space Z by identifying the Qi in Z i ; we will write Q for each of the Q,. More precisely, Z has a structure sheaf consisting of local holomorphic functions on the Zi which agree along Q. p also gives us a dual pairing between the normal bundles of Q in Z1, Z , . We have antiholomorphic will denote them by O(1, -l), O(-1, 1) respectively. The involutions induced by those on the Zi and, since p is 'real', we get an antiholomorphic involution 17 of Z . The discussion of 04.1 motivates the following definition.
zi
Definition 4.1. A standard deformation of Z consists of: ( a ) a smooth complex (n + 3)-dimensional manifold $ and a proper holomorphic map p :$+ S where S is a neighbourhood of 0 in 62"; ( b ) an isomorphism of complex spaces p-l(O) = Z ; (c) antiholomorphic involutions 17 on 3 and S, compatible under p and such that: ( d ) 171~-1(,,)is the given involution on 2. In addition we assume that near any point of Q c Z c 3 there are local coordinates zl, z,, 23, 24, t Z , . . . , t, on $ such that p(zl, . . . , t,) = (zlzz, t Z , . . . , f,). Hence the singular fibres of p are precisely those lying over the smooth hypersurface tl = 0 in C", where f l is the first coordinate function.
The main result we shall prove in this section is the following theorem.
Theorem 4.1. If $+ S is a standard deformation of a singular space 2 formed by identifying the exceptional divisors in blown-up twistor spaces, as above, then for sufficiently small vectors s in the fixed locus S" of the involution 17, not lying in the
21 2
hypersurface {tl = 0}, the fibre p-'(s) is the twistor space of a self-dual conformal structure on X I # X 2 .
So if Z admits a standard deformation the connected sum X1# X 2 admits self-dual metrics. Remark ( a ) In a standard deformation we can always choose coordinates on the base S so that a is given by complex conjugation of coordinates t,. This is a standard consequence of the implicit function theorem. Indeed, let {t,} be a set of coordinate functions on C"= TS and set tl' = $(t,+ t p ) . Then t,' is holomorphic and has the same differential at 0 as t,. Hence {t,'} is also a coordinate system, and in these coordinates a is just conjugation. In particular the set of real points S" is locally just R", and the real non-singular fibres are a copy of R"\Rn-'. ( b ) There is no loss of generality in supposing that the base of a standard deformation is one dimensional, for we can always restrict to a a-invariant line in S transverse to the hypersurface {tl = O}. For simplicity we will give the proof of theorem 4.1 for this one-dimensional case. (c) It is easy enough to see from the proof of theorem 4.1 below that the self-dual structures found on the connected sum are small deformations of the 'wedge' of the original structures on the X , in the following sense: for any compact sets K, c X,\{x,} there are maps f , ( s )from K, to the 4-manifolds X ( s ) of real lines in p(s) such that the pullback by f , ( s ) of the self-dual conformal structure on X ( s ) differs from the original on K , together with all derivatives, by O(ls1). ( d ) The main assumption we make is that the total space of the deformation is smooth. It is possible to dispense with this; if the given total space is singular one can make a finite number of blow-ups to get a smooth space to which the arguments of 04.3 below apply. However, this gives only a small increase in the generality of the resulting existence theorem for self-dual metrics. In the case when X , are conformally flat we can make a standard deformation in an elementary way by using the constructions of 04.1 above. It is worth mentioning another example where we get an explicit standard deformation. Let Z1 be the twistor space of X1 and blow up the product Z1X C along the line n;'(x,) x {0} to obtain a fourfold 3, with a natural map p : 3 4 C induced by the projection map on Z , x C. The fibres p - ' ( z ) for z # O are naturally copies of 2 , while ~ ~ ' ( 0 ) is U Y , where Y is the exceptional divisor of the blow-up. This can be identified , with the blow-up of CP3-the twistor space of S e a l o n g a line. In short is a canonical standard deformation for the pair of 4-manifolds X1, S4 and the 'new' conformal structures we obtain on the X ( s ) are just copies of the original one on X1. The construction is the twistor analogue of a family of conformally equivalent metrics g, on X1 which expand small balls about x1 into large 'balloons' and degenerate. in the limit as &--to, into the wedge X1v S4.
zl
4.3.Proof of theorem 4.1

Begin by noting two families of real lines in the blow up of 2,-the pre-images of twistor lines nT1(x)for x # x l and the real lines, in the linear system lO(1, 1)1, on the exceptional divisor Q. The latter correspond to the graphs of maps f : W 1 + CP1 such thatf(-l/Z] = -1/f(Z), that is to the isometries of the round 2-sphere. So these
21 3
lines are parametrised by a copy of SO(3) which we can identify more invariantly with the real projective space P((TXl),,). (Recall that SO(3) is diffeomorphic to RIP3.) The former set of lines are parametrised by Xl\{xl}. Any collection of lines in the smooth manifold Z1 has a natural topology induced on it and it is easy to check that the induced topology on GI= Xl\{Xl} U P(TX1) is that of the real blow-up of X I at xl. We leave this exercise to the reader. Similarly, in the singular space Z = Z l U , & we have three families of lines: pre-images of the ordinary twistor lines in Z1, Z2 and the lines in Q. The natural are topology on the union of these three families is that of G = GI U G,, where Gi the real blow-ups of the X i and P = P ( T X l ) = P(TX2), where the identification is made using p. This is a real singular variety, with a normal crossing along P , and transverse to P, G is locally modelled on {xy = 0} c R2. We observe that the connected sum X I # X , is the natural smoothing of G obtained by changing the structure transverse to P according to the model {xy = E } for E # 0. (The choices of smoothings E > 0, E < 0 correspond to the choices f p which have the same action on the projective spaces.) To prove theorem 4.1 we have to show that the smoothings of the twistor space Z contain spaces of lines parametrised by these smoothings of G. We now turn to the smooth total space 3, and consider G as a set of lines in 3. To understand the deformations of a line L of G in the ambient space 3 we have to look at the normal bundle vL of L in 3. Let us suppose for simplicity from now on that S is one dimensional, so vL has rank 3. If L does not lie in Q its normal bundle in Z is O(1) @ 6'(1), the same as the normal bundle of twistor lines in Z1,Z2. So we have an exact sequence:
0- O(1) @ O(l)+
Y L '
O+ 0.
This sequence splits since H'(O(1)) = 0. So in this case vL = O(1) @ O(1) @ 0. L is If a line in Q we have an exact sequence:
O+
YL,Q
Y L '
vQlL+
0.
The normal bundle Y ~ of ,L in the surface Q is O(2), since the self-intersection ~ number of L is 2. On the other hand the normal bundle Y , of Q in 3 is spanned by the normal bundles of Q in Z1, Z, which are O 1 -1) O(-1, 1) respectively. So (, vQ = 4 1 , -1) @ 6'(-1, l), and vQIL= O@ 6'. SO this sequence also splits, since H'(O(2)) = 0, and in this case vL = O(2) @ O@ 0. So for all lines L we have H1(vL)=O and according to the theory sketched in 02.3 there is a universal local deformation modelled on a neighbourhood of 0 in @(vL) = C5. Moreover these are universal deformations of all nearby lines, and so these local deformations fit together to give coordinate charts on a complex manifold of lines in 3. The function p : 3 S c C must be constant on each of " S . Also these lines (since CP" is compact), so induces a holomorphic map r : the involution a of 3 acts on the set of lines, and shrinking if necessary, it The fixed point induces an antiholomorphic involution, which we also call a, of ,? set $ of a (the real lines in the family) forms a smooth five-dimensional real analytic manifold, containing G. The key to the rest of the proof of theorem 4.1 is the following fact.
e+
e.
21 4
Lemma 4.1. There is an neighbourhood N of G in such that the only lines L' of N with normal bundle in 3 not isomorphic to O(1) 9 O(1) 9 6 are the lines of G in Q.
(As we have seen above, the lines in Q have normal bundle O(2) 9 09 0.)
Pruof. Consider the versal deformation of a line L of G, modelled on Ho(v,). The condition that a bundle over CP' be isomorphic to O(1) 9 O(1) 9 6 is open (for bundles E of the given topological type, it is equivalent to the condition fF'(E(-2)) = 0). So if L is not one of the lines in Q we can suppose, by restricting the local deformation, that all the other lines in the deformation have the normal 'If bundle O(1) 9 O(1) 9 6 . L is one of the lines in Q with vL= O(2) 9 O9 0we ask which points in the deformation space represent lines with this 'jumping' normal bundle. For this we apply the theory of 002.3 and 2.4. The versal deformation of the bundle E = O(2) 9 O9 0 over P' is modelled on H'(End E ) = H1(6(-2) 9 0(-2)) = C2. The deformations just deform the direct sum into extensions:
o+ 0 3 0- F+ 6
O(2)+ 0
and it is easy to see that the only bundle in the versal deformation not isomorphic to O(1) 9 4 1 ) 9 6 is that corresponding to the point zero in C2. Now the exact sequence O+ O(2)+ T3IL+ vL+O splits so the first formal neighbourhood of L in $ is trivial. Choose a trivialisation; then according to 02.6 we have a linear map:
y, :Ho(v,)
+ H'(End
vL)
representing the derivative of the family of normal bundles. If yL is surjective it , follows that there is a smooth submanifold HL of codimension 2 in U consisting exactly of the nearby points with jumping normal bundle. But we know that the family of lines in Q is three dimensional and has jumping normal bundle so it lies in HL; hence this family must account for all of H,. and, taking a finite cover of G in 3 by these local patches, lemma 4.1 follows. It remains then to see that y, is surjective. As stated in lemma 2.2 y, is induced by multiplication with the component of the second-order obstruction o2in:
H ' ( L ; vL3 s2(vE)) c H ' ( L ; T 3 3 s2(vE)).

Now the second-order neighbourhood of Q in % differs from the flat model Y$" by an element of:
H'(Q;s2(vZ)8 T 3 ) = H 1 ( O ( - 2 , 4))
(cf corollary 5.1 below). But the restriction map from H ' ( Q ; s2(v;) 3 T 3 ) to H'(L; s2(v;) @ T 3 ) (induced by vZIL+ v i ) is zero and this means that the second formal neighbourhood of L in 3 is isomorphic to the corresponding neighbourhood of L in Y$" (the total space of O(1, -1) 9 0(-1, 1) over (2). So it suffices to prove the surjectivity of 'yr. for the flat model or, equivalently, that the induced family of normal bundles is versal for the deformations of O9 O@ O(2). The flat model is the total space of O(1, -1) 9 0(-1, 1) and one sees easily that it is enough to show that the deformations of L in the total space of O(1, -1) contain a versal deformation of the normal bundle 09 O(2) (and symmetrically in the other factor). Write W, for the total space of O 1 -1) over Q and consider the one-parameter (, family of 'vertical' deformations L, (s E C of L given by the trivialisation of ) 41, -l)IL. We choose inhomogeneous coordinates (q, on Q = P x P', and let z2) '
Connected sums o self-dual manifolds f
21 5
wi= l/zi. Using these coordinates, trivialise W, over {zl # m, 2, # m} via coordinates zl, z2, t ; call this open set U, = C2 X @. Glue in another copy of C2x C, with
coordinates w,,w,, t' which trivialises Wl over {zl = 0, 2, = 0}, and giving coordinates on an open subset U, in Wl with transition functions
wi = l / Z i
t' = (z,/z,)t.
Now let z be an inhomogeneous coordinate on L and consider the map L x @+ W, defined by z1 = 2, = z, t = t' = s; taking L X {s} to L,. Over U,, d/az2 and d l d t span the normal bundles of the lines L, and over U, we can use d / d w 2 and d l d t ' . The resulting transiton function in the normal bundle of L, is
~s
= -1/z2
sir) 1 ' at s = 0 is
Thus the derivative of
@ s
(:
I t ) and this represents the generator of
H1(End(O@ O(2)), since l / z represents the generator of H1(O(-2)). This concludes the proof of lemma 4.1.
End of proof of theorem 4.1. Let % c 3 X 2F be the universal family of lines. Thus we have commutative diagram:
in which all maps are compatible with real structures. By construction %+ 2F is a P' bundle over Zc,and thus is smooth over F. Next we claim that the map %+ % is smooth, at least in a neighbourhood of the real locus, and possibly after shrinking S. To see this, let L be a real line in Z and choose a point x in L. The differential T%,x-fT,,x fits into two exact sequences:
0- T x L' , T%,x+p(vL)+o o+ TL,x+ Ts,x YL,X 0. After shrinking S if necessary, we have that vL is generated by its global sections, so TQiX maps onto T,,,, and hence % is smooth over Z. Thus for sufficiently small s in S"\O, q-l(s) and r - l ( s ) are smooth, while at 0 q-l(O) and r-'(O) have normal crossings. Moreover r at 0 has the local form xy = t. Everything is compatible with the real structures so the same is true of r :2?+ S". In particular, r-'(t) n Z = 2, is a smooth 4-manifold for t E S"\O. A standard argument shows that r : 2- S" is proper. Thus X , is a compact 4-manifold, for t E S"\O. For such t, a point in X , is real line L in p - ' ( t ) = Z , , and we know by lemma 4.1 that the normal bundle of L in Z is O@ O(1) @ O(1), if t is small. But the normal bundle of Z, in 2 is trivial so we have an exact sequence:
+
+
o+vL,z,+o@
O(l)CBO(l)+O+O
and this shows that the normal bundle of L in Z, is O(1)@8(1). Moreover the involution on 2, induced by (J is fixed-point free for small t (since it is so on 2,J.
21 6
S Donaidson and
Friedman
Thus 2, is the twistor space of a self-dual manifold containing X , and, since X,is compact, this must actually be X,. Finally, since r : %+ S" has the local form xy = t , we see that X , is given by the standard smoothing of X,, as discussed at the beginning of the proof, and is thus diffeomorphic to X1 X,. This completes the # proof of theorem 4.1.
5. Deformations of singular spaces

5.1. General theory
There is a theory of deformations of a compact, reduced complex analytic space 2 which is quite parallel to the theory for manifolds summarised in 91. The roles of H'(O,) there are now taken up by groups:
TI, = Ext'(Qk, Oz) (5.1) where Qi is the sheaf of Kahler differentials on 2. These are the 'global ext' groups: T i classifies extensions of sheaves of OZ modules:
(54 over Z . It is clear then how to modify the description of 92.2 to define the derivative of a deformation in Ti-we take the extension class of the sheaf of Kahler differentials on the total space g1restricted to the central fibre. Again T i gives the universal first-order deformation and there are obstructions expressed by a map Q,: T i + T:; @-'(O) is the base of a semi-universal deformation. Also TO, is the Lie algebra of the group of holomorphic automorphisms of 2. We can also define sheaves TI, of Oz modules:
TI,= X(QI,, OZ).
0-
6"+ 9- Qi-+ 0
These are related to the TI, by a spectral sequence E;sq+ TpZ'" with
E$l9 = H p ( Z , 2%).
In the smooth case zI,= 0 for i > 0, z is the sheaf of vector fields and we recover ; the previous set-up. (In general z$ is the sheaf of derivations of Oz.)The singular situation that we need to consider; as described in 94, is perhaps the simplest after the smooth case, and for greater clarity we will consider a general class of problems. Let V , be compact complex manifolds of the same dimension n and suppose there are hypersurfaces in V, which are biholomorphically equivalent. Fixing an by W . Let vr+ W be the identification between them, we will denote each of the normal bundle of W in V,. Then let V be the singular complex space obtained by identifying VI, V, along W in a 'normal crossing'. So V is singular on W and locally equivalent to {zlz2= 0} c Cn+' there. In this case the sheaf z$ is zero (this is true for any locally complete intersection: roughly the ' measure the local obstructions to 2 extending first-order deformations and these obstructions are easily seen to vanish : for complete intersections). Moreover the sheaf z is supported on W c V and is the sheaf of sections of the line bundle Y,@ Y + W . (Roughly, this is because the most , general deformation of {zlz2= 0} c en+' to zlz2= E (z3,. . . , z , + , ) . ) Our spectral is sequence then amounts to the exact sequence: O+H'(V; z$)-+TT:+Ho(W; Y , @ Y , ) ~ H ~ (~V ; + T $ - + H ' ( W ; Y , @ Y ~ ) . $)
d
(5.3)
21 7
The subspace H 1 ( V ;rb) corresponds to the deformations of V which are locally trivial, i.e. for which the singularities remain locally a product. The image in the projection T : +H o ( V ;r:) measures to first order the change in the singularities. Suppose in particular that v1 C v2 is the trivial holomorphic line bundle over W (and 3 fix a trivialisation). Then V is called d-semistable [9]. In this case Ho(vl 8 v2) = C and a deformation of V over the disc A has a smooth total space ~ d l+ A provided ' :" the image of the derivative of the deformation in H0(v1C v2) = C is non-zero. In 3 this case there are local coordinates around the singular points of V c V, (t, zl, . . . , z,) say, such that such that JC is given locally by t - zlz2 [9]. In particular the fibres V ( t )= ~ d - l ( t )are smooth for t # 0. We have, then, a good theoretical understanding of the conditions under which 'standard deformations' of our singular twistor space exist. In 335.2, 5.3 and 6 below we will spell out in more detail the implications of these. There are natural extensions of this theory to pairs of spaces, to vector bundles and to real structures, all very much as in 32, and we will mention these at the appropriate places.
5.2. The unobstructed case

We continue to discuss our d-semistable space V , as above, although we are of course particularly interested in the case when the components V, are the blown-up twistor spaces Zj and W is the quadric Q. We leave the discussion of real structures to 36. The first task is to analyse r& Let V ' be the normalisation of V (the disjoint union of VI, V,) and q :V ' + V the obvious map. Sections of r; on an open set Q c V can be identified with holomorphic vector fields ( u l , U,) on the two components of q - l ( Q ) such that the v i have zero normal component along W and the tangential components agree there. (This must be modified in an obvious way when q-'(S2) is contained in one of the V,..) That is, we have an exact sequence of sheaves on V : o+ ~~+q*@,~~,,,,*-,i*O,-,O (5.4) (see [9, P 881). Now the cohomology of Ov.,wluw, over V ' agrees with that of its direct image over V . On the other hand the former sheaf is the direct sum of O,,,, and OV2,+. which fit into exact sequences
0 -+ OK,, + 0,- vi +0 ,
(5.5)
The long exact cohomology sequence of (5.4) then gives the following.
=0 Proposition 5.1. Suppose Hp(v,) for all p and i = 1, 2. Then there is an exact sequence: O - , H ' ~ ~ , ) + H ~ ( O ,Ci3Ho(O,)+HO(Ow)--t~'(r,)-, . . . etc. )
In particular if also lip(@,) 0 for p = 1, 2 then: H 2 ( r V = H2(Ov,)Ci3 H2(Ov,). = )
21 8
all vanish then (5.3) and (5.4) imply that T$=O, the deformation problem is unobstructed and we can lift the third term C to T : to get smoothings of V. All of the conditions (a), ( b ) and ( c ) are satisfied in the twistor case; we now go a step further to trace back to the twistor spaces Zi.
zi-
Proposition 5.2. For 2 = 2, U Q 2, where Zi have: we 4i

H2(t$)
ziare
the blown-up twistor spaces
= H2(Z*; O,,) @ H2(Z2;
eZ2)
t$)
and an exact sequence:
O+T$+HO(Z1;
+
0 z , ) @Ho(Z2; Oz2)+Ho(Q; O Q ) + H ' ( Z ;
H'(Z1; @Z1,L1) H1(Z*; @Z2,L2)-+ 0. @
This is just a combination of the exact sequences above and the isomorphisms:
HyZ;
0.2) = H
' G ; @,,I,,)
for all i.
The latter follow from the Leray spectral sequence applied to the q, (also H 2 ( Z , ; O , , , ) H 2 ( Z , ; 0,) since the normal bundle of the line L, has vanishing = H', H 2 ) . The terms in this exact sequence have a natural interpretation. As we have seen H1(Z; $) represents deformations of Z preserving the form of the singularity and the sequence says that these are given by deformations of the pairs (Z,, L,) (the last term in the sequence) and deformations of the map identifying the quadric modulo the automorphisms of 2, fixing L, (the surfaces in the Z, (the term H0(0,)), terms Ho(Z,; e,,,>). As far as existence of smoothings goes we have, in the unobstructed case, the following.
Corollary 5.1. If H 2 ( Z , ; 0,) vanish for i = 1, 2 there is a complex standard deformation of the singular twistor space 2.
5.3. Obstructions and formal neighbourhoods

Let q,V , W be varieties as in 005.2 and 5.3 and denote the obstruction spaces H 2 ( q ;0,) by 2;.We want to understand the composites of the differential: d2:H"(v1 v 2 ) + H 2 ( V ; t ) 8 ; in the exact sequence (5.3), with the restriction maps (cf proposition 5.1)
r i : H 2 ( V ;TO,)+
2;.
We suppose we are in the d-semistable case when the product of the normal bundles is trivial, so we have to find the elements
pi = (&)l 2;. E
Recall from 02 that the first-order neighbourhoods of W in the are described by by classes o(ti)in H'(vT @ Tw). So CO!') can be regarded as lying in H'(vl @ Tw), the hypothesis on the normal bundles. The inclusion of Tw in rV2 induces a map:
v.
Hl(V2 @ T w ) + H ' ( v 2 @ W2lW).
(5.6)
21 9
Finally the exact sequence O+ TVz-+ TV2[ -+TV2[ I +0 furnishes a boundary W] W] map:
d 2 : H 1 ( v 2@
TV2lw)-+ H2(TV,).
(5.7)
(Here W2[ denotes the tensor product TV2@ 2, where 2 is the line bundle over W] V associated with the divisor W.) Putting (5.6) and (5.7) together, we get an , element, which we will just denote by d2(m(11)),in 2: = H2(TV2). Interchanging the : two manifolds we obtain a corresponding element of X .
Proposition 5.3. p1= d,(o$')) and p 2 = d2(mi2)),in %, %'; respectively. ' :
To prove this we go back and recall the definition of the differential d,, which originated in the spectral sequence relating the global and sheaf ext. In general we have
(5.8) for any sheaves, Ce, 9. This map can be defined as follows (cf [12, pp 722-61): the 9) correspond to equivalence classes of extensions of the stalks of stalks of U(%, Ce by those of 9. global section in Ho(@( Ce, 9))given by a cover V = U U, and A is extensions
0 4 1 U,+Y,+%I u,+o which are equivalent on the overlaps UmB U, =
(5.9)
d, :HO(&(
Ce, 9)) H2( 5%" 3, 9)) +
n U,, so there are diagrams
(5.10)
r$,@ differs from on the triple intersection UnSy an automorphism by Now which respects the extension: so by an element q j W p y of Hom(Ce I U,py, 9 I U,@,,), Then ($J,~,,) is a Cech cocycle representing d2{S,} in H2(%'m(%, 9 ) this ) If . cohomology class vanishes the can be modified to give compatible gluing maps; the S fit together to give a global extension, representing an element of Exr'(3, S), , and the choice of suitable r$ap corresponds to an ambiguity E 1 & % l((, 9 ) ) This . explains the early terms in the spectral sequence. Let us now implement this procedure in our example. For the generating element ' ' of Ho(@(S2:, 1 O v ) ) = H O ( v l @ = C we can take a cover of the form v,) U, = V,\W, U,= V2\W, {U,},+,,, a cover of a neighbourhood of W in V . We decompose each U, into components U:, U i - o p e n sets in Vl, V, respectivelymeeting along W. Choose coordinate systems which identify the U, with neighbourhoods of Y = { 6 = 0, 9 = 0) in the hypersurface X = {gq = 0) in en+'. We fix coordinates ( E , q ;zl, . . . , z,,-~) on en+'which we will abbreviate for clarity to (5, q ; z ) We suppose our coordinate systems take the form 59 to the fixed , trivialisation of v1 @ v,. Then over U,, U, we form the trivial extensions Yl, 9 = Q 1 $ O of Qb by Qv. Over X we have the following extension (the co-normal sequence):
0
o-.
I~/I$+
sz&.+,l,
a: --+ 0.
(5.11)
220
The first term is a rank-1 free sheaf over X , generated by
B = d(Er]) = r] dE + l j dy.
The middle term, which we will just denote by O;,,, is also free of rank n + 1, and this is the basic non-trivial extension of SZ; by. ' Our coordinate system gives a ' 6 standard splitting of the sequence (5.11), when restricted to X n { r] # O}. We just lift the forms dlj, dz-which generate ! away from r] = 0-to the forms with the & same names on Cn+'. Similarly we get a splitting away from E = 0. Thus we can use the coordinate systems to carry the sequences (5.11) over to the U,, and get extensions Y,. We also have identifications @la, G2, of the Ye with Yl, Y2over the intersections u',\W, induced by the splittings described above. It remains to choose the ,@ on the other double intersections. For this we apply the following , observation, which will be used also in the proof of proposition 5.5 below. Denote the hyperplanes { r] = 0}, { l j = 0} in Cn+l by H,, H2 respectively. Suppose we have biholomorphic maps 6:Hi Hiwhich agree on the intersection ( 5 = r] = 0). We seek a map F : Cfl+'+ Cn+' which restricts to the 6 on the Hi. (More precisely we should suppose the f;. are defined on neighbourhoods of a compact set in H , n H z , and seek an F defined on a similar neighbourhoodcorresponding to the fact that we can always shrink our sets U,-but we will not introduce extra notation for this.) We write
Lemma 5.1. Suppose
Then there is a F = (FE,F,, F , ) agreeing with the fi and such that FEF, = Er].
Proof. We can write
Then put FE = E'(1+ write
r]P(E, z ) ) , 4 = r]'(l+ ga(r], For the other component we 2)).

2)
z(I)= z(*l,(z) + Edl)(E,
A2)= z * ( z ) + Tpv'2'(r],
2)
and put F, = z ( ' ) + z ( ~ ) - z * ( z ) . In the situation above the map F acts, via its derivative DF, on Q;+, and the action preserves the 1-form B = d (Er]) since FEF, = Er]. So F induces an automorphism of the extension (5.11), covering the action of the fi: on a'. Applying this to the coordinate change maps on the U, n U, we obtain the desired identifications @,p:.Y,--,Yp.The vector fields qmB1 on U k n Ui\W = U, n U n U, are found by examining the action of F on the , coordinate induced splittings of Q;+, over Hl\(H, r l H2). Dually, we project the image under D F of the normal vector field: (5.12)
22 1
to the
5, z components. This is the vector field

E-(dF d d F d g - -z d q ag d q dz
-)
(5.13)
T Now the image r1d2(1)of d,(l) in W is represented by the cocycle of vector fields (qaP1, vas,,) the cover U, = V,\W, U: of V,. The qap1, on given in local coordinates by (5.13), are meromorphic on U:II U ; with at most simple poles along W. If all these poles are absent the I),ol are holomorphic on U L n U ; and give a Cech qaPY), r1d2(1) depends so 1-cochain on the cover whose coboundary is just (qmp,, are only on the poles of the qWpl.In fact the poles of qnpl naturally local sections of WlIw3 defining a class 6 in H1(W; 7'V 3 vl) and the 2-cocycle is the standard v1 representative for &(e) (cf (5.10)). So we have to compare 6 and U,. The condition FgF, = & implies that the normal component ( d F l d q ) E vanishes when 8 = q = 0. , I So the only pole comes from the tangential component:
But this is just the representative for the obstruction class ~ ( 1 2 ) of the first-order neighbourhood of W in V2given by the covering U:, so the proof of proposition 5.3 is complete.
(Note. One should compare proposition 5.3 with the very similar work of Persson and Pinkham [19].)
We can think of this calculation slightly differently using spaces in place of sheaves. Cfl+l is decomposed into the family of hypersurfaces:
x,= (Eq = t } c @,+I.

The singular space V is constructed by identifying open sets U, in X o on overlap regions Una by maps:
fap
: U,,
and identifying U,\W consistency condition

1,
U,, with domains in V,\W and V2\W by maps i. ,
These satisfy a
= $3
ofas.
(5.14)
If we have maps FaS between suitable domains in P extending the faa and ' , preserving the X,, can attempt to use the identifications F,P[x,, we i,op, (where p i , p 2 are the obvious projection maps on the X,, # 0) to make a family of spaces t V ( t )deforming V = V(0).To do this we must have
imopi =iPopioFmyIX,*
(5.15)
When t = 0 this is just (5.14). The class in H 2 which we have calculated is the next, O(t), term in (5.15). More precisely, the vector fields I)fnpiare
-(ippi)F dt
or8
1x,icrOpi)-' (
at t = 0.
(5.16)
When the class in H 2 vanishes we can choose the identifications to make a first-order deformation of V.
222
We will now take the ideas of proposition 5.3 a little further, and relate the quadratic obstruction Yz to the higher formal neighbourhoods of W. Let us first observe that, for n 3 2, the normal and tangential components of the classes o, in H'((TW @ vw) 63 s"(v&)) have independent meanings; the normal component vanishes if and only if we can find a cover by polydiscs with coordinate change maps:
( z ' , 5') = ( z ' ( z )+ O ( P ) ,@ ) E + O(P")).
(5.17)
Then we can talk about a trivialisation of the normal component of the nth-order neighbourhood, and these form a set modelled on @(vw 63 s"(v&)), provided at least one trivialisation exists. Proposition 5.4. Suppose the first-order neighbourhoods of W in the are trivial and fix trivialisations. Suppose then that the normal components of the second-order neighbourhoods are trivial. A choice of trivialisations for these normal components gives a natural splitting of the exact sequence (5.3) at the third term, i.e. a choice of isomorphism:
v.
T L = H 1 ( V ;z , )
C C. B
Proof, We continue with the notation set up above. We choose coordinate charts covering neighbourhoods of W in the V, compatible with the hypotheses of the proposition, so that on overlaps U: they compare by maps 5 =fya of the form
5' = W ) ( 5+ 0 ( E 3 ) )
=z*(z)
11' = W - l ( r + 0 ( v 3 ) )
(5.18) (5.19)
+ el(z)E2 + O(E3) = z * ( z ) + e2(2)$ + O(q3).
Then choose Fwp,as above, and obtain vector fields qaal,qwa2 which are, by proposition 5.3, holomorphic on u t p , U",. If the normal components of the qwpi vanish on W and the tangential components agree there, qwol and qwa2 define an element xwo of ~Ov(U,fi U,) and (xnP) is a Cech cocycle with coboundary (qwai, qwau). Then we can modify our maps by xwato get an explicit global extension representing a lift of 1 E C to T:. One can check then that this lift does not depend on the choices made, subject to the given trivialisations of the neighbourhoods of W. To see that the qwai satisfy the given conditions along W we work in the standard is coordinates so that qwB1
For the first component, the condition FEF, = Er] implies that F, has no (611) term (since Fq has no q2 term) so this normal term vanishes along W. For the second component we get d 2 F , / d E d q which agrees with qaa2. This completes the proof of proposition 5.4. Finally we evaluate the quadratic map Y2 on the lift of 1 E C to T : given by proposition 5.4.Composing with the maps to 2: we get elements: ai= riY2(1)E 2;. (5.20)
223
On the other hand we have a boundary map:
a, :HI( rviJ 8 , V I ) W(I)

O+
rV1+
-+
H2(W,) Hf =
(5.21) (5.22)
constructed from the exact sequence:
r V 1 [ 2 ~ ] +w1 v : I ~ ~ + O . 8
We can take the obstruction class in H'(W; Tw 8 v-'), replace v-' by Y : , lift to the formal neighbourhood W(') using the trivialisation and apply dl to get an : element for which we just write a,(w%), in X . Similarly with V,, V, interchanged. We have then a second-order version of proposition 5.3. Proposition 5.5. Suppose the hypotheses of proposition 5.4 hold and that we can also choose a further trivialisation of the normal components of the third-order neighbourhoods of W in V,, V,. Then:
01
=a
l(d
02
= a,(w%)
in X:, X $ respectively. Proof. In this situation we have a first-order deformation of V and Y2(1) is the obstruction to extending to second order. 0, is represented by the cocycle of vector fields formed from the t2 term in the family of local holomorphic maps (5.15) on the cover. In our coordinates these are given by the t2 terms in
&(E,
t / f ;2 )
F.(f, t / E ; 2).
Again only the poles are relevant. For the tangential component F,, notice from the construction in lemma 5.1 that we can suppose there are no mixed 5, r] terms:
F, = ~ ( " ( f ,) Z
+ ~ ( ~ ' ( r ]Z) - z*(z). ,
In particular there is no Er]' term and we get a double pole from the r]' terms in z(')(r],z ) . This is the standard representative for al(wz). For the normal component, the condition fiF, = Er] means that FE contains no terms in q2. Similarly this condition, together with the hypothesis that F, contains no q3 term (triviality of the normal component of the third neighbourhood) means that F. contains no Er]2 term. This implies that there are no poles in the t2 term in FE(& t / E ; z ) and the proof is complete. Turning now to the singular twistor space 2 = 2,Ue we have the following. 2, Proposition 5.6. The formal neighbourhoods of Q in the the kind considered in propositions 5.4 and 5.5. Proof. The obstructions lie in
zi admit trivialisations of
H 1 ( ( W , 0) @ 0(0,2)) @ ob, - n ) )
and
(tangential) (normal)
H'( 6 ( n - 1, 1 - n ) )
The first vanish when n = 1 and the second when n = 1, 2 so the only task is to see that we can remove the normal obstruction in H1(0(2, -2)) = C3 to satisfy the
224
hypotheses of proposition 5.6. But Ho(TQ 3 Y) = H0(0(2,0 ) )= C3 acts on these ; ' third-order normal obstructions (even though the tangential part need not be trivial to second order) by multiplication with the fundamental class in H1(End(vQ)3 Qb), as in lemma 2.3. We have to show that this map is an isomorphism. But H'(End(v,) 3 Qb) = H'(G&) = C X @, and the curvature class is (-1,1) in the standard basis (the first Chern class of the normal bundle). It is then easy to see that the multiplication map is indeed an isomorphism. Another approach to this is to use the discussion of the neighbourhoods of the twistor lines in the Ziin 03 and show that the trivialisations there induce the required trivialisations in 2;. In the same vein we can express the formula of proposition 5.5 in terms of Z;. First, the obstruction w: lies in H'(O(4, -2)) which is naturally isomorphic to s4(V:,), the space in which the Weyl curvature W:, lies. Second we know that the Serre dual of X f = H 2 ( 0 , , ) is H1(Qk,3K2,) and, as explained in 03, we have an evaluation map:
e,,:H'(Q& 3 Kz,)+s4(VJ
On the other hand the orientation reversing isometry p of the tangent spaces to the 4-manifolds identifies s4(VJ with s4(V:J so we get a natural pairing ( , ) p between these two spaces (using the sympletic form on either).
Proposition 5.7. (i) Under these natural isomorphisms 0; corresponds to the obstruction to trivialising the third neighbourhood of the line Lx, and so, by proposition 3.1, to W:. (ii) The pairing between a class h in H'(Qk, 3 Kzl) and o1= al(w:) goes over, under these isomorphisms, to the pairing
(iX,(h)>
w:>,.
We leave the verification of this proposition as a (rather lengthy) exercise for the reader. Combined with the discussion of 03 it gives a description of the quadratic the part the obstruction entirely in terms of the 4-manifolds Xi, Weyl curvature tensors and the evaluation of the solutions of the equation D*s = 0. In our main application in 06 below one could avoid this discussion by working throughout with the twistor spaces. With regard to part (i) of proposition 5.7, note that in general if B c A is a complex submanifold with trivial nth-order formal neighbourhood than the exceptional divisor in the blow-up of A along B has a trivial ( n - 1)th-order neighbourhood. With regard to part (ii), note that in general if W is a surface in a threefold V with first-order neighbourhood trivialised then the adjoint of the boundary map d : H ' ( T W 3 Y 2 ) + H 2 ( 7 V ) on the Serre duals:
H2(TV)* = H'(T*V 3 K,)
H ' ( V ; S)+H'(W"',
H'(TW 3 Y 2 ) * = H'(T*W 3 K , 3 v-2)

S) = H ' ( W , S) (3H ' ( W , S 3 Y*)
is given as follows. For any bundle S over V we have a restriction map: where the last isomorphism uses the trivialisation of W ( ' ) .Now our adjoint map is formed by taking the second component of this map, with S = T*V 3 Kv,and using
225
the restriction T*V+ T*W and the adjunction isomorphism Kw = Kv 6 Y. The 3 proof that this is adjoint to the boundary map d is an application of the residue theorem.
6. The main results and applications

In 44 we showed that self-dual metrics on the connected sum of self-dual 4-manifolds could be obtained from suitable deformations of a singular twistor space. In 65 we assembled the techniques required to study these deformations and we can now put the two together and spell out in detail some of the consequences.
6.1. The unobstructed case
Let XI, X , be compact self-dual 4-manifolds and suppose that X , Xx2 are both ,, zero. As we explained in 43.3 this is equivalent to the vanishing of the sheaf cohomology groups H2(Zi;0 )for the twistor spaces Zi. we choose points x i in Xi , If and an identification p of the tangent spaces at those points we can form, as in 44, the singular space (6.1) Z has a real structure 0. By corollary 5.1 we know that 2 can be smoothed, since the obstructions vanish. These smoothings will give standard deformations, in the sense of 44, provided they can be chosen to be compatible with suitable real structures. If Z has no infinitesimal automorphisms we can use the argument of 2.10, adapted in the obvious way to singular spaces, to get a real structure on the universal deformation space. However, in the cases of most interest to us these automorphisms are present so we extend the theory by the following device. It is easy to see that we can choose a finite set of disjoint real twistor lines {L,} in Z , none meeting the singular set Q, so that no non-trivial automorphisms of Z preserve U,L,. (For each Zi the identity component in the group of such automorphisms is the complexification of the group of isometries of Xipreserving the corresponding finite set of points.) So there is a universal deformation S for the pair ( Z , UL,). The involution 0 preserves the lines so this pair has a real structure. On the other hand the exact sequences relating the deformations of Z and the deformations of the pair show that
T L L , = T2, (6.2) and this latter vanishes by hypothesis. So the base space S for the relative problem is , modelled on T k , U Land we have an exact sequence:
0- U-, T&,UL,-, T&+O. (6.3) Here U is $H0(vL,). This exact sequence is compatible with natural real structures on all three spaces, induced by 0.
z= Z(x,, x,,
p ) = 2, U 2,. ,
Proposition 6.1. The universal deformation for (2,UL,) has a natural real structure and the local isomorphism of S with T i , U Lcan be chosen to be compatible , with the two real structures.
226
The proof follows that of lemma 2.1 precisely. We can now forget about the lines L, and just consider the real deformation of Z over S. Of course this is induced from the versal deformation T of 2 by a map e :S+ T, the tangent space of T at the base point is T i and (6.3) just describes the derivative of e. Now by our discussion in 05 the total space of the versal deformation over T is smooth and the set of points in T for which the fibres are not smooth is a smooth hypersurface whose tangent space at the base point is (6.4) Ker{Tk+@(&) = C.} Once again this map is compatible with real structures induced by a. This follows readily enough from the naturality of the various constructions. In turn, since S+ T is a submersion, the points in S over which the fibres are not smooth form a smooth hypersurface, tangent at the base point to a a*-invariant hyperplane in Tk,,,.. Then the family over S is a standard deformation of Z in the sense of 04 and by theorem 4.1 any of the real points in S, sufficiently close to the base point and not in the hypersurface, yield a twistor space for a self-dual metric on X I # X,. So we have the following.
Theorem 6.1. For any compact self-dual manifolds XI, X , with the connected sum admits a self-dual metric.
Xx,, both Yex2
zero
6.2. Extensions
Before taking up the question of the obstructions let us observe a number of simple extensions of theorem 6.1. First, if Z ( t ) are the fibres in a smoothing of the singular twistor space Z(0) we have the semi-continuity of hypercohomology [NI:
; t-0 O,,,,). dim T 2 ( Z ( 0 ) Oz(oJa lim sup dim T 2 ( Z ( t ) ;
(6.5)
So, by proposition 5.2, we see that under the conditions of theorem 6.1 the 0. Thus we can iterate connected sum admits self-dual metrics with theorem 6.1 to get the following.
Proposition 6.2. For any set X I , X 2 , . . . , X,, of compact self-dual 4-manifolds with Yexi= 0 for all i , the connected sum X I # X , # . . . # X,, admits a self-dual metric.
Corollary 6.1. (cf Floer [6]). For any n 2 0 the connected sum n@P2of n copies of CP2 admits a self-dual metric.
Indeed the twistor space of CP2 is the flag manifold F and, using the embedding
1F c CP2x CP2, or the general formulae of Bott, one sees that

(6.6) so there are no obstructions in this case. In 07 we will go into the geometry of these particular twistor spaces in more detail. Instead of this inductive construction we can equally well make a simultaneous connected sum by taking n twistor spaces Z1, Z 2 , . . . , Z,,, blowing up along n - 1 twistor lines li and identifying by maps pi in normal crossings to make a singular
H2( E;
0,) 0 =
227
space with a singular set consisting of n - 1 copies of the quadratic surface. In fact there are various different ways in which we may do this (corresponding to different degenerations of the self-dual metrics on the connected sum). For example, we can take n - 1 lines in Z 1 and one line in each of the other spaces. If we allow the 'connected sum of a manifold with itself' we can construct non-simply connected manifolds, and the general singular configuration we can consider is labelled by a graph, with multiple edges and loops allowed, whose vertices correspond to self-dual manifolds X i and whose edges correspond to one-point identifications in the manifolds. So here we are considering the graph:
In any case the same ideas go through to show that suitable smoothings yield self-dual metrics on the connected sum and to analyse the deformation theory of the singular space. The reader will have no difficulty in modifying the proofs above. In the unobstructed case the local picture is described by T' which naturally fits in an exact sequence:
n-1
O-,H1+T1+
i=l
@ Ci4O
(6.7)
where the terms Ci are copies of C associated with the different singularities. The versa1 deformation T can be embedded in T' in such a way that the fibre over a point t in T is smooth if and only if t maps to a vector (Al, A,, . . . , An) in CBCi with all components Ai non-zero. The other factor H measures the deformations of the singular space, i.e. of the data ( Z i , li, pi).
6.3. Self-dual connections

Recall that there is a one-to-one correspondence between self-dual connections over a self-dual manifold X and holomorphic bundles on the twistor space Z which are trivial on all the real twistor lines (with real structure, if we want unitary = connections). Suppose X 1 ,X , are self-dual manifolds as in 06.1 above, with XX, 0. Let El, E , be bundles over X I , X 2 carrying self-dual connections V I , V2 and E , , 8, the corresponding holomorphic bundles over the twistor spaces Z 1 , Z,. We attempt to construct a self-dual connection on a bundle El # E 2 over X 1 # X , as follows. The lifts n:(Bi) to the blown-up twistor spaces are trivial on the exceptional divisors Q . If we identify the bundles over Q by an isomorphism Y we get a holomorphic bundle E over singular space Z . (On any space with normal crossings a holomorphic bundle is given by a bundle on the normalisation and suitable identifications along the crossing divisors.) We then try to deform this to a holomorphic bundle over the small smoothings; that is to find a bundle g+ Z which restricts to E on the central fibre. If we can do this 8 gives self-dual connections for the self-dual metrics on the connected sum constructed in theorem 6.1. Since E is trivial on all the real lines in Z
228
and triviality is an open condition, so by continuity S will be trivial on all nearby real lines in $5 This deformation problem for bundles can be tackled by just the same techniques used for the base spaces in 35 above. Indeed if we go to the projectivised bundles as in 32.3 we get another compact space with normal crossings, and as in $2, the deformations of this are essentially equivalent to the deformations of the pair (2,E ) (the projective space fibres are stable). The upshot is that if the obstruction spaces:
H 2 ( Z 1 End E,) ;
H2(Z2; End E 2 )
are both zero the deformation of 2 can be lifted to E. So in that case we get self-dual connections over X1# X 2 given the initial data (V,, V2, Y ) . From the way the Ward correspondence is defined, giving Y is equivalent to giving an identification of the fibres of the original bundles Eiover the connected sum points xi. If we want unitary connections we need to have suitable real structure throughout, and then Y must be a unitary isomorphism. The theory sketched in the last paragraph is just the twistor translation of what has already been proved about self-dual connections on connected sums using direct , methods. An important case is to take the trivial deformation of 2 = 2, U P3 described in 34. We can then take the trivial bundle over 2, and some instanton bundle over P3 and, if the intersection form of XI is positive definite, deform to get a non-trivial bundle on Z,, hence non-trivial self-dual connection over X . This is precisely the twistor translation of the construction of Taubes [23] gluing in an instanton. The holomorphic version of the same idea that we have here is very similar to a construction invented by Gieseker [lo] who also gives, in a different context, an algebro-geometric version of Taubes method. For general connected sums we recover the results of [3]. Moreover we could easily go on to analyse the obstructions, in the manner of 06.4 below, and then we would recover the leading terms calculated in [3,24].
6.4. Overcoming the obstructions

We return to the problem of constructing self-dual metrics on connected sums, without assuming that the obstruction spaces vanish. For the main application we have in mind, suppose that X,, Y,, . . . , Y, are self-dual manifolds with twistor spaces Z,, W,, . . . , W,,. Choosing points xl, x 2 , . . . ,x,, in X , and y,, y2, . . . , y,, in the Y, together with identifications pi of the corresponding tangent spaces gives the connected sum X , # Yl # . . . # Y,,. Similarly we get a singular twistor space 2 formed by gluing the blow-ups of Zo, We can then consider the versal deformation of 2. If this fails to be universal we choose sufficiently many lines as in 06.1 but, for simplicity, we shall suppress this point and assume that the versal deformation has a real structure (the additional lines merely give extra parameters which can be carried through all our arguments). Similarly, for notational simplicity, are smooth of we suppose that the bases of the versal deformations of Zo, dimension equal to dim H 1 ( 0 ) (i.e. the obstructions for deforming the constituent manifolds are ineffective). This assumption can be considerably relaxed; see the remark at the end of this section. As we have explained in 35 the space H1(2;r;) is the Zariski tangent space to
w..
w.
229
the space of locally trivial deformations of Z , those preserving the singular structure. We can explicitly construct a locally trivial deformation S of Z , with parameters given by (i) local parameters on the versal deformations of Zo, wl:; (ii) variations of the 'gluing data'-the lines blown-up in Zo, and the identifications of the exceptional divisors, the latter taken modulo the automorphisms of the blown-up twistor spaces which preserve the exceptional divisors. The exact sequences in (5.4) and the proof of proposition 5.2 show that this deformation is the versal locally trivial deformation of Z. Passing now to the general deformations of 2, with Zariski tangent space TL, our analysis of 05 gives an exact sequence:
-j
TS + T i + @ HO( OQt) 0. +
6 3 . 9
The versal deformation space of Z , which contains S , is the zero set of a map Y : T& (X& G3 x q . @ xy") 3 c.
x=
Lemma 6.1. Under the above assumptions there exist coordinates p l , . . . , p k , Al, . . , , A, on a neighbourhood of 0 in T i such that: (i) AI = A2 = . . . = A, = 0 defines the base S of the versal locally trivial deformation space above; (ii) d/dAi E TL projects to the generator 1 of Ho(Qi: 0 , ) ; (iii) viewed as a power series, Y ( p , A) in these coordinates, Y has no constant or linear terms in the Ai (i.e. vanishes to order 2 along S ) .
Proof. By the above the locally trivial deformation space S is smooth and we can choose coordinates pi on it. Using propositions 5.3 and 5.6 2 admits a second-order deformation, over the thickened point: U = Spec(HO(&) 3 C [ E ] / E ' ) .
Applying the same result for all points in S we can construct a deformation of Z over the thickening S X U of S , restricting to the given ones on the two factors. Now we can write U = Spec e[&, . . . , 1,J(&Xj), where the {Ai} are canonical basis elements in Ho(zk)= @ @(OQ,). Then U X S maps into the versal deformation of 2 and so into the zero scheme of Y. We can extend the to functions Aion T', and by the implicit function theorem the Ai and pi form a coordinate system in a neighbourhood of 0 in T'. The three stated properties follow immediately, the third because 2 can be deformed to first order in the Aivariables, transverse to S . We now analyse Y in the coordinates of lemma 6.1, writing
xi
(6.8) where B2 is homogeneous quadratic in A and C,(p, A) is linear in p and quadratic in A. We can write B2(A)= (A, A ) say where ( , ) is the associated symmetric form. Note that B2 is invariantly defined by the bracket [ , ] and we have calculated it explicitly to be
( ~ 2 ~ 2 ) o(~3)
w ( ~ A) = B ~ ( A ) c , ( ~ , A) + 0 , +
Here h denotes an element in the dual space of Z, a combination of tensor fields over the different 4-manifolds, and the pairings are made as in proposition 5.7.
230
Now we can regard the quadratic part of Y, locally, as a map, p + B2,psay, from S to quadratic forms on @". More invariantly, it is a section of a vector bundle over S. However, if p = ( p l , . . . , ,U") is a zero of Bz there is an intrinsically defined derivative:
which is an %-valued linear form on the tangent space to S at 0. On the one hand this is plainly given by C3. On the other hand, since for small s the function Ys(q, = Y(q s, d) defines the base of the corresponding singular twistor space A) Z(s) and since B2 is intrinsic, this derivative can be calculated by differentiating the right-hand side of our formula (6.9) with respect to gluing variables (or rather, since we have not yet introduced real structures, their complexifications). We will now state a general result giving conditions under which smoothings exist. Suppose p is a non-zero vector on which B2 = B2,0vanishes and write DB2 for the linear map from TS to %defined above. Let ( , p ) be the linear map from @" to X defined by the bilinear form and say that p is a regular zero if the linear map from T i to T$ defined by D B 2 + ( , p ) is surjective. Note finally that we have real structures throughout, and in particular we can talk of real vectors p.
Proposition 6.3. If p E @" is a regular zero of B2 with all components pi non-zero then Z is smoothable. If in addition p is real then standard deformations of 2 exist. Proof. This is just the implicit function theorem. The picture is clearer if we blow up the parameter space along S. By hypothesis p, is non-zero and we choose new variables ( p ; E, vl, . . . , vn-J, with
A1
= (I11
+ v1)
A2
= E(p2
+ v2), . . . , A, = E&.
Now by lemma 6.1 @ vanishes to
*
= Y ( p , A,, . . . , A,,-,). Put @ ( p ;E, v,, . . . , order two along E = 0, so we can write
@ ( p ;E ,
VI,
. . . , Vn-1)
= E2X(P;
E, Yl,
. . , vn-1)
with a function x holomorphic in a neighbourhood of 0 in p , E, vi space. Clearly vanishes at the origin (since Yv2 vanishes on p) and the derivative of in the vi variables can be identified with ( , p). Also we can identify the derivative of x in the p variables with DB2. So our hypotheses give that the restriction of x to the hyperplane E = 0 has a regular zero at the origin. Thus the implicit function theorem gives an arc p ( t ) , E(t), vi(t) in the zero set of x with deldt non-zero, and this goes down to a map
f :A +
Y-l(O)
with f (0) = 0 and derivative at 0, df = (p,0) E @" X TS. In particular there are points in W1(0)\S, so Z is smoothable. If p is real we can choose f to be real also, then the pull back of the versa1 deformation is a standard deformation over A.
Example . Let K be a K3 surface with a Ricci-flat self-dual metric (and the standard orientation reversed). We consider the problem of finding self-dual metrics on connected sums K # n@P2.We take n points xi in K and corresponding points yi in n distinct copies of CP2. The obstruction space % is just %E. Our first task is to describe this space, or rather its dual, explicitly.
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The Riemannian structure induces a flat connection on the bundle AE and, since the manifold is simply connected, this is a globally trivial connection.
Lemma 6.2. 2%'; is identified under the isomorphism of proposition 3.2 with the i& 8 C ) . Moreover the five-dimensional space of covariant constant sections of s( versa1 deformation space of the twistor space Z of I? is smooth and of dimension 57 = dim H ' ( Z ; Oz).
Proof. The horizontal trivialisation of A defines a holomorphic map h :2- (CP' : which is a C" fibration. Each of the fibres 2, of h represents a different complex structure on K , all with trivial canonical bundle so the canonical bundle of 2 is h*(O(-4)). According to Serre duality the dual of XZ is H ' ( Q i 8 K z ) = H1(Qi(-4)). We have an exact sequence:
o+h*0(-2)+Q~-.Slk,,l--,o. Clearly H'(P'; h , h * ( 0 ( - 4 ) ) = H1(P1; 0(-4)), and the higher R1h,h*(O(-4)) is zero. So the Leray spectral sequence for h gives direct
(6.10)
image
H ' ( Z ; h*(0(-4)) = HI($'; O(-4)).

Similarly h , ( Q i , , t ) = 0, since H o ( Z A Q1) = 0. To find the bundle ;
R1= R'h*(Q&ip1(-4))
over P1 we recall the description of the family Z, in terms of periods (see [2] for example). If 5, 7 are homogeneous coordinates for A on P1 there are cohomology + classes 01, 02, e3 in H 2 ( E ;C ) such that c201 E7O2 + q203= 0, is null relative to the cup product form and there is a natural isomorphism:
H'(z,; Q;,) = e:&.
(6.11)
(0, is represented by a holomorphic 2-form on Z,). It follows that R 1 is a holomorphic sub-bundle of a bundle q which is a quotient:
( 0+ O -4) + H 2 ( K ;C)8 O(-2) + Q + 0
(6.12)
and so I?'(P1; R') = 0. Thus the spectral sequence and exact sequence (6.9) give H1(S2k(-4)) = H1(P1; 0(-6)) = s4(V-) as required. Moreover, chasing through the various steps, one finds that the corresponding tensor fields on K are just the covariant constants. For the last part of the proposition we can calculate dim H1(O,) using the exact sequences as above. On the other hand we know the moduli space of self-dual metrics on K : it is the 57-real-dimensional space of Kahler-Einstein metrics, modulo scale. But this is a real form of the moduli space of structures on 2, so the result follows. For CP2the curvature tensor W + at a point can be written as the matrix (thought of as an endomorphism of A+):
(6.13)
Here the 2-eigenspace is the distinguished, covariant constant, Kahler form. We can thus write down explicitly the quadratic term Y2 for a connected sum involving K
232
and CP2. One finds quickly enough that there are no zeros of this quadratic term for the connected sum with one or two copies of @P2, we do have the following. but
Theorem 6.2. The 4-manifold
K # 3 @P2 admits a self-dual metric.
Proof, We consider three points xl, x2, x 3 in K and attach @P2 with maps pi. Y2 only depends on the induced identifications of the three-dimensional spaces A with ; A and the latter are all identified by the trivialisation of A;. Similarly Y, is ; independent of the parameters p , the location of the x i , yi and the local moduli of the metric on E. We can write the quadratic form in terms of Ai and three matrices R, in SO(3) as
3
Y, =
i=l
R~uR;~A:.
(6.14)
Now the matrices U, = U = diag(2, -1, -l), U,= diag(-l,2, -l), U, = diag(-1, , -1,2) are conjugates of U and have sum zero; so they represent a zero of Y with Al = A, = A3 = 1. We have to check that this is a regular zero. If
-b
-C
is an element of so(3) we have
So the image of the derivative of B2 with respect to the Ricontains
1 0 0
0 1 0
1 1 0
Also the derivatives with respect to the Ai which span the off-diagonal part of s2(R3). are the U, themselves, which span the diagonal part, so the zero is regular. A similar argument, using configurations of the form:
gives immediately the following.
233
Theorem 6.3. For all n metric.
1 and N
3 2n
+ 1,
( n K ) # N ( @ P 2 ) admits a self-dual
Remark . The proof of theorem 6.2 used only the natural, unobstructed, family of locally trivial deformations of the singular twistor space obtained by varying the gluings. If these contain enough parameters to verify lemma 6.l(ii) one can dispense with the assumptions on the deformations of the constituent manifolds by making obvious modifications to the proofs.
7. Connected sums of projective planes

In the previous section we saw that our techniques gave self-dual metrics on the connected sums nCP2 for all positive n. Here we shall discuss the geometry of the associated twistor spaces and show that, for n = 2, 3, our approach gives some of the complex threefolds constructed by Poon [20,21].
7.1. Geometry of the flag manifold

Recall that the twistor space of the self-dual Fubini-Study metric on @P2 the flag is manifold F: (7.1) where P = PC2and P* is the dual plane of the lines in P. F is a smooth hypersurface in P x P * , a member of the linear system O(1,l) (standard notation). The lines 1 in F are of the form
IF = {(x, I )
E
P x P* 1 x
I}
= H, n H2n [F
where H,, H2 are in the linear systems O(1, 0), O(0, 1) respectively, i.e. HI consists of points on a given line m and H2 consist of the lines through a given point x . We require that m does not pass through x for in that case the intersection is singular. In bihomogeneous coordinates x o , xl, x2 on P and Eo, El, E2 on P * , a typical line is given by
We define, inductively: (7 * 3) the normal crossing threefold obtained by blowing up lines in the twistor spaces T,-l and [F, so T, is a small smoothing of Z , . On T, the canonical bundle K , has a natural square root, and we set 2, = KT,12. Following Poon, our main concern is We with the linear system defined by zn, begin with the flag manifold itself, i.e. with 2,. Write 4 ( a , b ) for the restriction to [F of OPxp*(a,b). By the adjunction formula we have
2, = Fn-l U aF
KF = Q(-2, -2) I
2]= Q(1, 1).
(7.4)
234
From the exact sequence:
o-,
opxp*-+
O p x p * ( l , 1)- 4(1, 1)+0

X
(7.5) for
i 2 1.
and standard results on P
P * , we obtain
h'(F, 2,)= 0
ho(F,9,) =8
(7.6)
= Let 1 be the line in IF given by (7.2), the intersection of Hl = {xo = 0}, H2= {to O } . Let n : F+ IF be the blow-up along I and H i , H ; the proper transforms of H,, H2in f . Finally set
Lemma 7.1. (1) ho(F,9,) and hi@, pl) 0 for i 3 1. =5 = (2) The restriction map @(F, 2%)+H0(Q, pile) = Ho(Q, OQ(l, 1))is surjective. (3) The linear system on F has no base locus or fixed components and so defines a morphism @ :F 4 P4. (4) The image of is a smooth quadric in P4, is a birational equivalence and is a smooth hyperplane section of @(F). (5) The divisors HI, H i are smoothly contractible in (to curves) and @ is precisely the contraction of H i , Ha, and maps these surfaces to lines in the different = rulings of @(e) Q.Thus F is the blow-up of the quadric @(F) along two lines in
@(e)
@W.
Proof. (1) Since L1= n*L18 OF(-Q) we have R'n*L1= L18 R'n*OF = .Fe, 8 I, =O
(where Zlis the ideal sheaf of I ) . Hence
(7.8) Using the explicit generators {x,E,} for Ho(F, T1),and the relation C xIgi 0, we see = that Ho(F;2,8 I,) has a basis
0 4 9 8 I/ -+ 2 ,
(i = 0 ) ( i 3 1)
pl)= H'(IF;
8 Z) We have ).
O1(Z)-+ 0.
(7.9) Hence hO(lF, = 5, and we can see explicitly that the sections of L , surject onto 9) l =l '21 ) those of Z l 01(2), so by (7.8): H'(Zl 8 I,) = H ( Z= 0 for i 2 1. (2) We have an exact sequence:
( ~ 0 5 0 ~ 0 5 1 ~ 0 5 2 ~ 1 5 0 ~ 2 5 0 = (20, , , , , )
zl, zz, z3,2 4 ) ) say.
O+Ho(F;
9 1
8 6'i(-Q))-+Ho(@; L?1)+H0(Q; 211Q)-+0.
Since ho(@; = 5 and ho(Q;p1jQ) o ( Q ; OQ(l, 1)) = 4 the restriction map is $) =h surjective if and only if ho(F;2,(-Q)) By the Leray spectral sequence, = 1. @(F; Pl(-Q))H a @ ;~ * ( 2 ~ ) ( - 2 Q=) Ho(IF;Zl Z:)-the sections of 2, vanish= ) 8 ing to order 2 on 1. Clearly this latter space is one dimensional, spanned by xoE0, so (2) follows. (3) By (2) lpll has no base locus along Q . We have to show that for each point p on F\Q there is a section of L1 which does not vanish at p . By (1) this is the same as showing that one of the five basis elements z, for Ho(z1 I,) does not vanish at Q9 n ( p ) . But this is clear, since at least one of the coordinates xo, go is non-zero.
235
(4) In the notation of (7.9),

Z;
@(F) is contained in the smooth quadric

(7.10)
+ 2123 +
2224
=O
in P4. It is clear, from the explicit set of generators, that the image of @ is open in, and so all of, this quadric, and that @ is a birational equivalence. To see the image of Q recall that the kernel of the restriction map for sections of pl to Q is generated by zo = xo&, so @ ( e )is the hyperplane section zo = 0 of @ ( e ) . ( 5 ) On the divisor Hl = { x o = 0} we have zo=z, = z 2 = 0 , so HI is mapped to a line in The explicit coordinates show that this is just the usual fibration of a blown-up plane (which Hl is intrinsically) over P', and similarly for H2. It is elementary to check using coordinates that @ is precisely the contraction of H,, H2 (alternatively note that Pic F has rank 3 and Pic @ ( F ) has rank 2, so there can be nothing else contracted.)
@(e).
7.2. Properties of 9 ,
Let a:$+ A represent a deformation of F,-' U = Z , so that for small t # 0, @ ( t ) = T, is a smoothing of Z , = Q(0). We can suppose that the total space is smooth. The canonical bundle K of the total space restricts on T, to K, and on Z , to the dualising sheaf wz,.The same is true for the preferred square roots. We begin by considering o, = oz,.
Lemma 7.2. The restriction of o, to F,-, is x*KT+ 2Q and the restriction of o, to is n*(K,) + 2Q. Hence o;1/21~n-, = (2,-') = p - and o;1/21s = pl. = n* -Q ,'
Proof. This is just the formula for the canonical bundle of a normal crossing space; see for example [9] and lemma 2.1.
Let a : C-,LI F+Z, be the normalisation map. We write 2,,= ,;'I2 as defined , , ' PI in (7.10) so 9 restricts to p - , on the two components. Thus we have an exact sequence:
o+
~ Z , ( 2 , ) - $ a * ( ~ ~ - , ( p , n -@) l
oQ(1, 1)+0*
(7.11)
Lemma 7.3. (1) We have h"(2,; 2 ) hO( , = FnVl;, - ' 1 = hO(T,,-l; p,.) + h ' ( ~ , 3,) = hi(F,-l; L?,-~ C3 1,)for i 3 I. ; (2) There is a natural exact sequence (from restriction):
C3 f,) + 1
and
o+ %,(L-') o d Z - l ) - +4 ( 2 ) + 0 C3 4Proof. (1) By lemma 7.1(2), the map H"(F;l ) + H O ( Q ; oQ(l, 1)) is surjective with p a one-dimensional kernel. The result is immediate from this, (7.11) and the Leray , Part (2) is clear. spectral sequence for 2 .
Corollary 7.1. We have ~ ' ( 2 , ) ~ and x(T,; 2,) 10-2n. These are straight= 8 - 2n = forward inductions from (7.10); alternatively use the Riemann-Roch formula.
236
The application of lemma 7.3 is the following. If h'(Z,; semicontinuity theorem, for T, close to Z , we have
hO(Tn; ,= hO(Z,; 9 ) 9 ) , .
zn) 0 =
then, by the (7.12)
Moreover, in this case, if the linear system 1 1 Z , has no base locus the same 9 on , 9 will , will be true on T, close to Z,. Hence l l give a morphism to P9-2n. (Note that, ,and are by induction using corollary 7.1, h'(T,, 9 ) h'(Z,; Zn) zero for i = 2, 3.)
7.3. The case n = 2

Proposition 7.1. (cf Poon [20]). The small smoothings T2 are mapped birationally by 1z an intersection Y of two quadrics in P5. Y has exactly four double points and 91 to the map from & to Y is a small resolution of the double points. Proof. We have Z 2 = F U, so, by lemma 7.1(1), H'(Z2;.2t2) = 0 and we are in the position considered above. The restriction map H"(Z2;.2t2)-+H"(F; .$) is surjective 91 Z2-+ P5which maps each copy of (for either factor) and 1 2 defines a morphism a : to a smooth quadric in a P4c P5 with Q a smooth hyperplane section of each. Explicitly the image of Z 2 can be written
2;
+ w;= 2 1 2 3 + 2224
2,
w,= 0
(cf (7.9)).
(7.13)
We now regard -fe, as a line bundle over the total space 2 of the deformation, 5%) The fact that H 1 ( Z 2 ; = 0 implies that sections of Z2over Z 2 can be extended to 2. So we may suppose that Z2 defines a morphism over A :
(7.14)
such that AIZ,= a. Let Z: be the singular variety a ( Z 2 ) .We may view Y as a flat family of embedded deformations of Z,*, so there is a Kodaira-Spencer derivative class 8* E H"(Z,*;ti,.)= H o ( Q ;0,(2, 2)) (measuring the deformation of the sinZ2+ Z,* contracts four divisors (the H i , H i in each factor) each gularity). Now a: of which meets Q in a line. We get a pair of lines in each ruling of Q. An easy argument (cf [9, p 83]), comparing 8* with the nowhere vanishing section 8 of @(Z,; zk), shows that these lines are exactly the zero set of 8*. If t is the coordinate on A we can choose coordinates 2 , w on Q near a double point of the zero section of 8* so that Y : 9+ A is given locally by the equation xy = zwt. So for small non-zero t, Y-'(t) has exactly four ordinary double points, corresponding to the line intersections, and no other singularities. This threefold is an irreducible, non-degenerate threefold in P5whose generic hyperplane sections are smooth quartic surfaces in P4. Thus the hyperplane sections are intersections of pairs of quadrics and a standard argument shows that the same must be true of w-'(t) in P. An easy topological argument, comparing with a smooth intersection of quadrics, shows that for the variety Y - ' ( t ) with four double points the group of
237
Weil divisors mod rational equivalence has rank three. But the group of Cartier divisors on Q - ' ( t ) (isomorphic to H 2 ( 0 - ' ( t ) ; Z ) ) also has rank three, so the birational map a must be a small resolution. This concludes the proof of proposition 7.1. To sum up we have shown that our twistor spaces coincide in this case with those of Poon. We can see the deformation from the singular space explicitly. Ignoring real structures we deform (7.13) to the family of equations:
2;+
w 2 - 2124 - ZZz3 0
20 WO=
tz, 2 3
(7.15)
and then resolve the four singular points.
7.4. The case n
=3
We now suppose G is a small deformation of 2, with the properties detailed in proposition 7.1 and let T3 be a further small deformation of Z3. Proposition 7.2. (cf Poon [21]). For suitable (generic) twistor spaces the linear system defines a morphism p : T3+ P3 exhibiting T3 birationally as a double cover of p3.
l3 z1
r.
Proof. We begin by analysing the linear system l 1on the singular space z 3 Z3 = %UQ Let a:G+ Ps be the morphism defined by z2, above. First note as that if I is a twistor line in Tz we have 2,f= 2, so the images of twistor lines are lies conics in Ps. We claim that there are lines I in T, such that C = a ( f ) in a smooth hyperplane section S2 of a(G). (Moreover if T2 is a twistor space, i.e. has a real structure, we can choose I, S2 to be real.) To see this choose a real surface So in on 2, which contains a real twistor line Io in one factor F, disjoint from Q and such that the restriction to each component is smooth and meets Q transversely. The A explicit description of lF shows that these exist. Choose a real smoothing, Q: of Z2. The vanishing of H ' ( Z z ;&) means that we can extend the section so of -Ft;lz, cutting out So, to the total space 3,. Moreover the normal bundle of Io in So is trivial so that Io is a stable submanifold of So in Kodaira's sense. This gives a smooth real threefold Y2c such that S2 = Y, n Q - ' ( t ) is smooth for t = 0, and such that S, contains small deformations of twistor lines, hence twistor lines in T,. Choose a line I as above and let be the blow-up of T, along I. As in lemma 7.1 p1 may be identified with the linear system 1% - I1 above the linear system 1 2on on T2 (sections of L$ vanishing on I ) . Let (C) = P2be the plane spanned by C in P'. Since a(&) is a complete intersection of two quadrics, and since a quadric either contains ( C ) or cuts out C in it, we must have a(TJ n ( C ) c S2 n ( C ) , and hence a(T,) r ( C ) = S, n ( C ) = C scheme theoretically. Thus the rational map Tz+ P2 l corresponding to the linear system 1 , - I / has indeterminacy only along 1. 2 Moreover we see that l 2 defines a morphism f : F2+ P2which is the composition: p1
12 z1
z2-+
% = BIlT2+
Bfca(T2)+Bl~c~P'-+P2
where the last map is induced by the linear projection Ps\(C ) + P2. Note that f defines a conic bundle structure on T,. The restriction of p2to Q is OQ(l, 1) so &L$Q = 2. Thus the restriction off to Q is a two-to-one map Q+P2. Using the surjectivity of H 0 ( E ; 9 1 ) + OQ(l, l)), we may lift the linear series corresponding to f to a linear
@(e;
238
subseries of l?l Let @ :P-, P4 be the birational map of P to a smooth quadric, r Ll. say, constructed in lemma 7.1. The linear series Q -+ P2 yields a base point free subseries of /C&(l)l which maps R, and so [F, two-to-one on to P3. Hence l 3 is a z1 linear series on Z3 without base points or fixed components, and defines a morphism and the map described above on F. p:Z3+ P3. Here p is f o n = '3 = We have ho(T,,z2) 6 and ho(T,;% 2 4 ) = ho(T,;z2) 3. Thus, by lemma 7.3(2) Ho(T,;&) maps onto Ho(Z; 6'[(2)) and so, by lemma 7.3(1), H 1 ( Z 3 z3) 0. It ; = follows, as before, that the morphism /3 from Z3 to P3 extends to a morphism p : &+ P3for small smoothings T3 of Z3, via an extension to the total space of the deformation. Now, on Z3,-/3 has degree 2 (since the restriction to has degree 2, and the other component T, is mapped to a plane) so the same is true on r, and the proof is complete.
Remark. Let S3 be a smooth hyperplane section of T3, i.e. an element of lZ31.A somewhat lengthy argument shows that the deformations of the pair (q, are S,) From this it follows easily that, for a versa1 for the deformations of the surface S3. general T3, the general member of lZ31 is a general del Pezzo surface of degree 2, that is the double cover of P2 along a smooth quartic. This implies that the branch locus, for general G, of the map p : T3+ P3 is an irreducible quartic with only isolated singularities. Poon has shown that in this situation these singularities consist of exactly 13 double points; this might also follow from a more detailed analysis of the deformation theory. Finally we mention the situation for n 2 4.
Proposition 7.3. (1) For the generic small deformation T4 the linear system 1 4 is a pencil. The Z1 is general element of IZ41 biholomorphic to P2blown up at 9 general points and the is base locus of IZ41 a smooth elliptic curve. (2) For all n 3 5 the generic small deformation T, has Ho(T,; 2,)= 0.
Remark. One easily checks that, in the situation above, for generic small deforma= tions q, Ho(&;Zyk) SymkHo(Tq;z4).Similarly for generic T,, n 2 5 , P ( G ;ZFk)= 0 for all k > 0. According to work of Poon [22], for & as above the algebraic dimension is 1, and for generic T,, n 2 5, the algebraic dimension is 0. Indeed, for an arbitrary twistor space T the methods of [22] show that the algebraic dimension of T plus 1 is the transcendence degree over C of the field of fractions of @ P ( T ; Z B k ) where 2 = KT1", provided that P( ; zBk) , T is non-zero for some k and zero otherwise (see also [28]).
References
[l] Atiyah M F, Hitchin N J and Singer I M 1978 Self-duality in four dimensional Riemannian geometry Proc. R. Soc. A 362 425-61 [2] Besse A Einstein Manifolds 1987 (Berlin: Springer) [3] Donaldson S K 1986 Connections, cohomology and the intersection forms of four manifolds J DiR. Geom. 2 275-341 4 [4] Eastwood M G 1985 The generalised Penrose-Ward transform Math. Proc. Camb. Phil. Soc. 97 165-87 [5] Eastwood M G, Penrose R and Wells R 0 Jr 1981 Cohomology and massless fields Commun. Math. Phys. 78 305-51
239
[6] Floer A 1987 Self-dual conformal structures on I @ Preprint Courant Institute, New York [7] Forster 0 1977 Power series methods in deformation theory Proc. Symp. in Pure Mathematics vol 30, part 2, pp 199-217 (Providence, RI: American Mathematical Society) [8] Forster 0 and Knorr K 1979 Konstruction Verseller Familien Kompakter Komplexer Raume Lecture Notes in Mathematics 705 (Berlin: Springer) [9] Friedman R 1983 Global smoothings of varieties with normal crossings Ann. Math. 118 75-114 [lo] Gieseker D 1988 A construction of stable bundles on an algebraic surface J . Diff, Geom. 27 137-54 [ l l ] Griffiths P A 1966 The extension problem in complex analysis 11. Embeddings with positive normal bundle Am. J . Math. 88 366-446 [12] Griffiths P A and Harris J 1978 Foundations ofAlgebraic Geometry (New York: Wiley) [13] Hitchin N J 1980 Linear field equations on self-dual spaces Proc. R. Soc. A 370 173-91 (141 Hitchin N J 1981 Kahlerian twistor spaces Proc. Lond. Math. Soc. Ser 111 43 133-50 [15] Horikawa E 1974 On deformations of holomorphic maps I1 J . Math. Soc. Japan 26 647-67 [16] Kodaira K 1962 A theorem on completeness of characteristic systems for analytic families of compact submanifolds of a complex manifold Ann. Math. 75 146-62 [17] Kronheimer P J 1986 Private communication [18] Palamodov V 1976 Deformations of complex spaces Russian Math. Surveys 31 129-97 [19] Persson U and Pinkham H 1983 Some examples of non-smoothable varieties with normal crossings Duke Math. J . 50 477-86 [20] Poon Y S 1986 Compact self-dual manifolds of positive scalar curvature J . Diff. Geom. 24 97-132 [21] Poon Y S 1989 Small resolutions of double solids as twistor spaces Preprint Rice University, Texas [22] Poon Y S 1987 Algebraic dimension of twistor spaces Preprint Rice University, Texas [23] Salamon S M 1983 Topics in four dimensional Riemannian geometry. Geometry Seminar Luigi Eianchi (Lecture Notes in Mathematics 1022) (Berlin: Springer) [24] Taubes C H 1982 Self-dual connections on non self-dual four manifolds J . D i f . Geom. 17 139-70 [25] Taubes C H 1984 Self-dual connections on manifolds with indefinite intersection matrix J . Diff. Geom. 19 517-60 [26] Topiwala P N 1987 A new proof of the existence of Kahler Einstein metrics on K3, I I1 Invent. Math. 89 425-48, 449-54 [27] Uhlenbeck K K 1982 Connections with Lp bounds on curvature Commun. Muth. Phys. 83 1129 [28] Ville M 1987 On twistor spaces with positive algebraic dimension Preprint University of Nancy (Institut Eli Cartan)

Donaldson 1989 Connected Sums of Self-Dual Manifolds and Deformations of Singular Spaces

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Connected sums of self-dual manifolds and deformations of singular spaces

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Nonlinearity 2 (1989) 197-239. Printed in the UK

Connected sums of self-dual manifolds and deformations of singular spaces

$ Department of Mathematics, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, USA

Received 8 July 1988 Accepted by R Penrose

AMs classification scheme number: 32699

0951 -771 5/89/01

O m + ~ ~ $ 0 2 . 5 0 1989 IOP Publishing Ltd and LMS Publishing Ltd 0

S Donaldson and R Friedman

Connected sums of self-dual manifolds

2. Deformations and formal neighbourhoods

S Donaldson and R Friedman

2.2. Deformations of complex manifolds

Connected sums of self-dual manifolds

S Donaldson and R Friedman

2.3. Deformations of submanifolds

2.4. Vector bundles

+Hi( Endo E)+ H'(P; Of)+ H ' ( W ; O w ) H+'(W; End, E)+. W; A

Connected sums of self-dual manifolds

2.5. Real structures

restricting to the given a on the central fibre. Iterating a we obtain

S Donaldson and R Friedman

2.6. Description of formal neighbourhoods

Connected sums of self-dual manifolds

suitable cover we get a Cech cocycle

5') = ( ~ ' ( zh)(,z ) 5 )+ (et(z', 5'1, en(z', 5'))

3 Y&)+ H ' ( T W ) = H'(0,).

3 S " ( Y & ) ) c H1(T 8 S " ( Y & ) ) .

S Donaldson and R Friedman

3 Review o twistor theory . f

TX," = @(YL,) = Ho(O( 1) 63 a(1)).

Connected sums of self-dual manifolds

v+3 O(1)- P = P ( v - ) . '

s3(V+) 3 v+= S"V+) G3 S2(V+).

S Donaldson and R Friedman

3.2. Self-dual connections

This space is isomorphic to End E, 63 A : curvature under the natural isomorphism.

3.3. Linear field equations

Connected sums of self-dual manifolds

D * :T(s;(A-)) + r(A' 3 A).

H ' ( L , 52:3KZIJ--jH1(L, Q ; @ K z ( L ) = H ' ( L , 0(-6))

d$ : A+(End E)+ A1(End E )

4. Twistor interpretation of connected sums

S Donaldson and R Friedman

and identify E,\{O} with E2\{0} by a map ip,A:

Connected sums of self-dual manifolds

and form the singular space with a 'normal crossing'

4.2. Standard deformations

S Donaldson and R Friedman

4.3.Proof of theorem 4.1

Connected sums of self-dual manifolds

S Donaldson and R Friedman

H ' ( L ; vL3 s2(vE)) c H ' ( L ; T 3 3 s2(vE)).

Connected sums o self-dual manifolds f

Thus the derivative of

I t ) and this represents the generator of

5. Deformations of singular spaces

Connected sums of self-dual manifolds

5.2. The unobstructed case

In particular if also lip(@,) 0 for p = 1, 2 then: H 2 ( r V = H2(Ov,)Ci3 H2(Ov,). = )

S Donaldson and R Friedman