 Admissible cut for a Heegaard Floer mixed map

An admissible cut splits a four-dimensional cobordism as $W=W_1{\cup }_N{W}_2$, with $b_2^{+}(W_1),b_2^{+}(W_2)>0$, and with the Mayer-Vietoris connecting map $H^1(N;\mathbb{Z})\to H^2(W;\mathbb{Z})$ equal to zero. The last condition removes the ambiguity in gluing Spin-c structures on the two pieces. Positivity makes both infinity cobordism maps vanish, allowing passage through the Reduced Heegaard Floer homology of $N$. A useful cut is the boundary of a neighborhood of a positive-square embedded surface, chosen so that its complement still has a positive direction. The nonzero normal Euler number makes $H^1$ of the neighborhood surject onto $H^1$ of its boundary, proving the connecting-map condition.