Quotients of gravitational instantons

Abstract

A classification result for Ricci-flat anti-self-dual asymptotically locally Euclidean 4-manifolds is obtained: they are either hyperkähler (one of the gravitational instantons classified by Kronheimer), or they are a cyclic quotient of a Gibbons-Hawking space. The possible quotients are described in terms of the monopole set in R^3, and it is proved that every such quotient is actually Kähler. The fact that the Gibbons-Hawking spaces are the only gravitational instantons to admit isometric quotients is proved by examining the possible fundamental groups at infinity: most can be ruled out by the classification of 3-dimensional spherical space form groups, and the rest are excluded by a computation of the Rohklin invariant (in one case) or the eta invariant (in the remaining family of cases) of the corresponding space forms.

22 pages. Typographical errors corrected