Small exotic rational surfaces without 1- and 3-handles
Small exotic rational surfaces without 1- and 3-handles
We give new rational blowdown constructions of exotic $\mathbf {CP}^2\# n\overline {\mathbf {C}\mathbf {P}^2}$ $(5\leq n\leq 9)$ without using elliptic fibrations. We also show that our 4-manifolds admit handle decompositions without 1- and 3-handles, for $7\leq n\leq 9$. A strategy for rational blowdown constructions of exotic $\mathbf {CP}^2\# n\overline {\mathbf …