Smooth embeddings of rational homology balls

The rational homology balls B-n appeared in Fintushel and Stern's rational blow-down construction [3] and were subsequently used in [10,4] to construct exotic smooth manifolds with small Euler numbers. We show that a large class of smooth 4-manifolds have all the B(n)s for odd n >= 3 embedded in them. In particular, we give explicit examples, using Kirby calculus, of several families of smooth embeddings of the rational homology balls B-n. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.