Spherical 3-manifolds bounding rational homology balls

Abstract

We give a complete classification of the spherical 3-manifolds that bound smooth rational homology 4-balls. Furthermore, we determine the order of spherical 3-manifolds in the rational homology cobordism group of rational homology 3-spheres. To this end, we use constraints for 3-manifolds to bound rational homology balls induced from Donaldson's diagonalization theorem and Heegaard Floer correction terms.

29 pages, 8 figures; revised and clarified the arguments in Section 6.3, to appear in Michigan Math. Journal