Forbidden configurations and definite fillings of lens spaces

Abstract

We study definite fillings of lens spaces. We classify the lens spaces $L(p,q)$ for which every smooth negative-definite filling $X$ satisfies \[ b_2(X)\ge b_2(X(p,q))-1, \] where $X(p,q)$ denotes the canonical negative-definite plumbing. The classification is given by 17 "forbidden configurations" that cannot appear as induced subgraphs of the canonical plumbing graph. More generally, we introduce a combinatorial framework that encodes the lattice embedding information coming from the dual plumbing of $X(p,q)$, and we prove that it is governed by a finite set of minimal forbidden configurations. We also discuss consequences for symplectic fillings of lens spaces and for smoothings of cyclic quotient singularities.