Independence of Iterated Whitehead Doubles

Abstract

A theorem of Furuta and Fintushel-Stern provides a criterion for a collection of Seifert fibred homology spheres to be independent in the homology cobordism group of oriented homology 3-spheres. In this article we use these results and some 4-dimensional constructions to produce infinite families of positive torus knots whose iterated Whitehead doubles are independent in the smooth concordance group.