Non-linear partial differential equations in conformal geometry

We clarify how close a second order fully nonlinear equation can come to uniform ellipticity, through counting large eigenvalues of the linearized operator. This suggests an effective and novel way to understand the structure of fully nonlinear equations of elliptic and parabolic type. As applications, we solve a fully nonlinear version of the Loewner-Nirenberg problem and a noncompact complete version of fully nonlinear Yamabe problem. Our method is delicate as shown by a to...

In this paper we consider Yamabe type problem for higher order curvatures on manifolds with totally geodesic boundaries. We prove local gradient and second derivative estimates for solutions to the fully nonlinear elliptic equations associated with the problems.

We show that on conformal manifolds of even dimension $n\geq 4$ there is no conformally invariant natural differential operator between density bundles with leading part a power of the Laplacian $\Delta^{k}$ for $k>n/2$. This shows that a large class of invariant operators on conformally flat manifolds do not generalise to arbitrarily curved manifolds and that the theorem of Graham, Jenne, Mason and Sparling, asserting the existence of curved version of $\Delta^k$ for $1\le k...

Let M be a compact Riemannian manifold of dimension n. The k-curvature, for k=1,2,..n, is defined as the k-th elementary symmetric polynomial of the eigenvalues of the Schouten tenser. The k-Yamabe problem is to prove the existence of a conformal metric whose k-curvature is a constant. When k=1, it reduces to the well-known Yamabe problem. Under the assumption that the metric is admissible, the existence of solutions to the k-Yamabe problem was recently proved by Gursky and V...

The Yamabe problem concerns finding a conformal metric on a given closed Riemannian manifold so that it has constant scalar curvature. This paper concerns mainly a fully nonlinear version of the Yamabe problem and the corresponding Liouville type problem.

In this paper we study the existence and compactness of positive solutions to a family of conformally invariant equations on closed locally conformally flat manifolds. The family of conformally covariant operators $P_\alpha$ were introduced via the scattering theory for Poincar\'{e} metrics associated with a conformal manifold $(M^n, [g])$. We prove that, on a closed and locally conformally flat manifold with Poincar\'{e} exponent less than $\frac {n-\alpha}2$ for some $\alph...

We study first and second order conformal symmetries of the Yamabe Laplacian on a general pseudo-Riemannian manifold and of the Paneitz operator on Einstein spaces. We show that first order conformal symmetries of the Yamabe operator induce second order conformal symmetries. We show that on an Einstein space every conformal Killing vector field induces a conformal symmetry of the Paneitz operator and, conversely, every first order conformal symmetry of the Paneitz operator ar...

This article is a survey of results involving conformal deformation of Riemannian metrics and fully nonlinear equations.

In this paper, we consider a class of fully nonlinear equations on closed smooth Riemannian manifolds, which can be viewed as an extension of $\sigma_k$ Yamabe equation. Moreover, we prove local gradient and second derivative estimates for solutions to these equations and establish an existence result associated to them.

Let (M,g) be an arbitrary pseudo-Riemannian manifold of dimension at least 3. We determine the form of all the conformal symmetries of the conformal (or Yamabe) Laplacian on (M,g), which are given by differential operators of second order. They are constructed from conformal Killing 2-tensors satisfying a natural and conformally invariant condition. As a consequence, we get also the classification of the second order symmetries of the conformal Laplacian. Our results generali...