Immersed spheres in 4-manifolds and the immersed Thom conjecture

Abstract

The introduction of the Seiberg- Witten monopole equations ([SW1],[SW2],[W]) has served to make the study of smooth 4-manifolds more accessible. Many of the important earlier theorems regarding Donaldson invariants of smooth 4-manifolds have more easily proven analogues in Seiberg-Witten theory [J]. Further, new fundamental results have quickly appeared, most notably the proof