A note on the Nielsen realization problem for K3 surfaces

Abstract

We will show the following three theorems on the diffeomorphism and homeomorphism groups of a $K3$ surface. The first theorem is that the natural map $\pi_{0}(Diff(K3)) \to Aut(H^{2}(K3;\mathbb{Z}))$ has a section over its image. The second is that, there exists a subgroup $G$ of $\pi_{0}(Diff(K3))$ of order two over which there is no splitting of the map $Diff(K3) \to \pi_{0}(Diff(K3))$, but there is a splitting of $Homeo(K3) \to \pi_{0}(Homeo(K3))$ over the image of $G$ in $\pi_{0}(Homeo(K3))$, which is non-trivial. The third is that the map $\pi_{1}(Diff(K3)) \to \pi_{1}(Homeo(K3))$ is not surjective. Our proof of these results is based on Seiberg-Witten theory and the global Torelli theorem for $K3$ surfaces.