Smooth structures on collarable ends of 4-manifolds

Abstract

We use Furuta's result, usually referred to as ``10/8-conjecture'', to show that for any compact 3-manifold $M$ the open manifold $M\times\r$ has infinitely many different smooth structures. Another consequence of Furuta's result is existence of infinitely many smooth structures on open topological 4-manifolds with a topologically collarable end, provided there are only finitely many ends homeomorphic to it. We also show that for each closed spin 4-manifold there are exotic \rf's that can not be smoothly embedded into it.