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PU(2) monopoles and relations between four-manifold invariants

Using quantum field-theoretic arguments, Witten has established a relation between the Donaldson and Seiberg-Witten invariants of smooth four-manifolds. In this survey article, we describe the program to prove this relation using a moduli space of PU(2) = SO(3) monopoles as a cobordism between the Donaldson moduli space of anti-self-dual SO(3) connections and moduli spaces of U(1) monopoles. We provide an overview of some of our transversality and Uhlenbeck compactness results for PU(2) monopoles, along with some of our calculations of Donaldson invariants in terms of Seiberg-Witten invariants. We give a brief outline of issues concerning the gluing theory, focussing on some of the analytical difficulties that are particular to PU(2) monopoles, and its application to the PU(2) monopole program to prove the relation between Donaldson and Seiberg-Witten invariants.