The second Yamabe invariant

Let (M,g) be a compact Riemannian manifold of dimension n?3. We define the second Yamabe invariant as the infimum of the second eigenvalue of the Yamabe operator over the metrics conformal to g and of volume 1. We study when it is attained. As an application, we find nodal solutions of the Yamabe equation.     

The Yamabe Problem and Applications on Noncompact Complete Riemannian Manifolds

We let (M,g) be a noncompact complete Riemannian manifold of dimension n 3 whose scalar curvature S(x) is positive for all x in M. With an assumption on the Ricci curvature and scalar curvature at infinity, we study the behavior of solutions of the Yamabe equation on –u+[(n–2)/(4(n–1))]Su=qu ^{(n+2)/(n–2)} on (M,g). This study finds restrictions on the existence of an injective conformal immersion of (M,g) into any compact Riemannian n -manifold. We also show the existence of a complete conformal metric with constant positive scalar curvature on (M,g) with some conditions at infinity.     

Positive mass theorem for the Yamabe problem on spin manifolds

Let (M, g) be a compact connected spin manifold of dimension n ≥ 3 whose Yamabe invariant is positive. We assume that (M, g) is locally conformally flat or that n ∈ {3, 4, 5}. According to a positive mass theorem by Schoen and Yau the constant term in the asymptotic development of the Green’s function of the conformal Laplacian is positive if (M, g) is not conformally equivalent to the sphere. The proof was simplified by Witten with the help of spinors. In our article we will give a proof which is even considerably shorter. Our proof is a modification of Witten’s argument, but no analysis on asymptotically flat spaces is needed.Received: March 2004 Revised: June 2004 Accepted: June 2004     

Isoperimetric regions in spherical cones and Yamabe constants of M ×?S1

We study isoperimetric regions on Riemannian manifolds of the form (M ⁿ × (0, π), sin²(t)g + dt ²) where g is a metric of positive Ricci curvature ≥ n − 1. When g is an Einstein metric we use this to compute the Yamabe constant of (M ×\mathbbR, g+ dt² ){(M \times \mathbb{R}, g+ dt^2 )} and so to obtain lower bounds for the Yamabe invariant of M × S ¹.     

Surgery and the Yamabe Invariant

We study the Yamabe invariant of manifolds obtained as connected sums along submanifolds of codimension greater than 2. In particular: for a compact connected manifold M with no metric of positive scalar curvature, we prove that the Yamabe invariant of any manifold obtained by performing surgery on spheres of codimension greater than 2 on M is not smaller than the invariant of M. Submitted: August 1998.     

A notion of geometric complexity and its application to topological rigidity

We introduce a geometric invariant, called finite decomposition complexity (FDC), to study topological rigidity of manifolds. We prove for instance that if the fundamental group of a compact aspherical manifold M has FDC, and if N is homotopy equivalent to M, then M×ℝ ⁿ is homeomorphic to N×ℝ ⁿ , for n large enough. This statement is known as the stable Borel conjecture. On the other hand, we show that the class of FDC groups includes all countable subgroups of GL(n,K), for any field K.     

Complete noncompact manifolds with harmonic curvature

Let (M ⁿ , g) be an n-dimensional complete noncompact Riemannian manifold with harmonic curvature and positive Sobolev constant. In this paper, by employing an elliptic estimation method, we show that (M ⁿ , g) is a space form if it has sufficiently small L ^n/2-norms of trace-free curvature tensor and nonnegative scalar curvature. Moreover, we get a gap theorem for (M ⁿ , g) with positive scalar curvature.     

Surgery and the Spinorial τ-Invariant

We associate to a compact spin manifold M a real-valued invariant τ(M) by taking the supremum over all conformal classes of the infimum inside each conformal class of the first positive Dirac eigenvalue, when the metrics are normalized to unit volume. This invariant is a spinorial analogue of Schoen's σ-constant, also known as the smooth Yamabe invariant. We prove that if N is obtained from M by surgery of codimension at least 2 then τ(N) ≥ min{τ(M), Λ _n }, where Λ _n is a positive constant depending only on n = dim M. Various topological conclusions can be drawn, in particular that τ is a spin-bordism invariant below Λ _n . Also, below Λ _n the values of τ cannot accumulate from above when varied over all manifolds of dimension n.     

Rigidity of the critical point equation

On a compact n ‐dimensional manifold M, it was shown that a critical point metric g of the total scalar curvature functional, restricted to the space of metrics with constant scalar curvature of volume 1, satisfies the critical point equation ([5], p. 3222). In 1987 Besse proposed a conjecture in his book [1], p. 128, that a solution of the critical point equation is Einstein (Conjecture A, hereafter). Since then, number of mathematicians have contributed for the proof of Conjecture A and obtained many geometric consequences as its partial proofs. However, none has given its complete proof yet. The purpose of the present paper is to prove Theorem 1, stating that a compact 3‐dimensional manifold M is isometric to the round 3‐sphere S³ if ker s^′*_g ≠ 0 and its second homology vanishes. Note that this theorem implies that M is Einstein and hence that Conjecture A holds on a 3‐dimensional compact manifold under certain topological conditions (© 2010 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Weak and smooth solutions for a fractional Yamabe flow: The case of general compact and locally conformally flat manifolds

As a counterpart of the classical Yamabe problem, a fractional Yamabe flow has been introduced by Jin and Xiong (2014) on the sphere. Here we pursue its study in the context of general compact smooth manifolds with positive fractional curvature. First, we prove that the flow is locally well posed in the weak sense on any compact manifold. If the manifold is locally conformally flat with positive Yamabe invariant, we also prove that the flow is smooth and converges to a constant fractional curvature metric. We provide different proofs using extension properties introduced by Chang and González (2011) for the conformally covariant fractional order operators.     

Characterizing spheres by conformal vector fields

In this short note we consider an n-dimensional compact Riemannian manifold (M, g) of constant scalar curvature S = n(n − 1)c and show that the presence of a nontrivial conformal vector field ξ on M forces S to be positive. Then we show that an appropriate control on the energy of ξ makes M to be isometric to the n-sphere S ⁿ (c).     

Blow-up examples for the Yamabe problem

It has been conjectured that if solutions to the Yamabe PDE on a smooth Riemannian manifold (M ⁿ , g) blow-up at a point p ? M{p \in M} , then all derivatives of the Weyl tensor W _g of g, of order less than or equal to [\fracn-62]{[\frac{n-6}{2}]} , vanish at p ? M{p \in M} . In this paper, we will construct smooth counterexamples to the Weyl Vanishing Conjecture for any n ≥ 25.     

The structure of some classes of <Emphasis Type="Italic">K</Emphasis>-contact manifolds

We study projective curvature tensor in K-contact and Sasakian manifolds. We prove that (1) if a K-contact manifold is quasi projectively flat then it is Einstein and (2) a K-contact manifold is ξ-projectively flat if and only if it is Einstein Sasakian. Necessary and sufficient conditions for a K-contact manifold to be quasi projectively flat and φ-projectively flat are obtained. We also prove that for a (2n + 1)-dimensional Sasakian manifold the conditions of being quasi projectively flat, φ-projectively flat and locally isometric to the unit sphere S ²ⁿ⁺¹ (1) are equivalent. Finally, we prove that a compact φ-projectively flat K-contact manifold with regular contact vector field is a principal S ¹-bundle over an almost Kaehler space of constant holomorphic sectional curvature 4.     

Minimal entropy and collapsing with curvature bounded from below

We show that if a closed manifold M admits an ℱ-structure (not necessarily polarized, possibly of rank zero) then its minimal entropy vanishes. In particular, this is the case if M admits a non-trivial S ¹-action. As a corollary we obtain that the simplicial volume of a manifold admitting an ℱ-structure is zero.?We also show that if M admits an ℱ-structure then it collapses with curvature bounded from below. This in turn implies that M collapses with bounded scalar curvature or, equivalently, its Yamabe invariant is non-negative.?We show that ℱ-structures of rank zero appear rather frequently: every compact complex elliptic surface admits one as well as any simply connected closed 5-manifold.?We use these results to study the minimal entropy problem. We show the following two theorems: suppose that M is a closed manifold obtained by taking connected sums of copies of S ⁴, ℂP ², ²,S ²×S ²and the K3 surface. Then M has zero minimal entropy. Moreover, M admits a smooth Riemannian metric with zero topological entropy if and only if M is diffeomorphic to S ⁴,ℂP ²,S ²×S ²,ℂP ²#  ² or ℂP ²# ℂP ². Finally, suppose that M is a closed simply connected 5-manifold. Then M has zero minimal entropy. Moreover, M admits a smooth Riemannian metric with zero topological entropy if and only if M is diffeomorphic to S ⁵,S ³×S ², then on trivial S ³-bundle over S ² or the Wu-manifold SU(3)/SO(3). Oblatum 13-III-2002 & 12-VIII-2002?Published online: 8 November 2002 G.P. Paternain was partially supported by CIMAT, Guanajuato, México.?J. Petean is supported by grant 37558-E of CONACYT.     

Rigidité conforme des hémisphères {{\rm S}^4_+} et {{\rm S}^6_+}

Let (M, g) be a four or six dimensional compact Riemannian manifold which is locally conformally flat and assume that its boundary is totally umbilical. In this note, we prove that if the Euler characteristic of M is equal to 1 and if its Yamabe invariant is positive, then (M, g) is conformally isometric to the standard hemisphere. As an application and using a result of Hang and Wang (Comm Anal Geom 14(1):91–106, 2006), we prove a rigidity result for these hemispheres regarding the Min-Oo conjecture.     

Constant mean curvature spheres in Riemannian manifolds

We prove the existence of embedded spheres with large constant mean curvature in any compact Riemannian manifold (M, g). This result partially generalizes a result of R. Ye which handles the case where the scalar curvature function of the ambient manifold (M, g) has non-degenerate critical points.     

The Yamabe problem on quaternionic contact manifolds

By constructing normal coordinates on a quaternionic contact manifold M, we can osculate the quaternionic contact structure at each point by the standard quaternionic contact structure on the quaternionic Heisenberg group. By using this property, we can do harmonic analysis on general quaternionic contact manifolds, and solve the quaternionic contact Yamabe problem on M if its Yamabe invariant satisfies λ(M) < λ(ℍ ⁿ ). Mathematics Subject Classification (2000) 53C17, 53D10, 35J70     

On Harnack inequalities and singularities of admissible metrics in the Yamabe problem

In this paper we study the local behaviour of admissible metrics in the k-Yamabe problem on compact Riemannian manifolds (M, g ₀) of dimension n ≥ 3. For n/2 < k < n, we prove a sharp Harnack inequality for admissible metrics when (M, g ₀) is not conformally equivalent to the unit sphere S ⁿ and that the set of all such metrics is compact. When (M, g ₀) is the unit sphere we prove there is a unique admissible metric with singularity. As a consequence we prove an existence theorem for equations of Yamabe type, thereby recovering as a special case, a recent result of Gursky and Viaclovsky on the solvability of the k-Yamabe problem for k > n/2. This work was supported by the Australian Research Council.     

Constant mean curvature hypersurfaces with two principal curvatures in a sphere

In this paper we consider a compact oriented hypersurface M ⁿ with constant mean curvature H and two distinct principal curvatures λ and μ with multiplicities (n − m) and m, respectively, immersed in the unit sphere S ⁿ⁺¹. Denote by the trace free part of the second fundamental form of M ⁿ , and Φ be the square of the length of . We obtain two integral formulas by using Φ and the polynomial . Assume that B _H,m is the square of the positive root of P _H,m (x) = 0. We show that if M ⁿ is a compact oriented hypersurface immersed in the sphere S ⁿ⁺¹ with constant mean curvatures H having two distinct principal curvatures λ and μ then either or . In particular, M ⁿ is the hypersurface .      

Certain 4-manifolds with non-negative sectional curvature

In this paper, we study certain compact 4-manifolds with non-negative sectional curvature K. If s is the scalar curvature and W. is the self-dual part of Weyl tensor, then it will be shown that there is no metric g on S ^• × S ^• with both (i) K > 0 and (ii) ÷ s − W _• ⩾ 0. We also investigate other aspects of 4-manifolds with non-negative sectional curvature. One of our results implies a theorem of Hamilton: “If a simply-connected, closed 4-manifold M^• admits a metric g of non-negative curvature operator, then M^• is one of S^•, ℂP^• and S^•×S^•”. Our method is different from Hamilton’s and is much simpler. A new version of the second variational formula for minimal surfaces in 4-manifolds is proved.