The Huber theorem for non-compact conformally flat manifolds

It was proved in 1957 by Huber that any complete surface with integrable Gauss curvature is conformally equivalent to a compact surface with a finite number of points removed. Counterexamples show that the curvature assumption must necessarily be strengthened in order to get an analogous conclusion in higher dimensions. We show in this paper that any non compact Riemannian manifold with finite -norm of the Ricci curvature satisfies Huber-type conclusions if either it is a conformal domain with volume growth controlled from above in a compact Riemannian manifold or if it is conformally flat of dimension 4 and a natural Sobolev inequality together with a mild scalar curvature decay assumption hold. We also get partial results in other dimensions. Received: April 14, 2000; revised version: March 20, 2001