Local degeneracy of pseudo-Riemannian conformal transformations (Q1931232)

Let \((M,g)\) and \((N,h)\) be two pseudo-Riemannian manifolds of signature \((p,q)\). In this work the set \(\mathrm{Conf}(M,N)\) of conformal immersions from \(M\) to \(N\) is studied. The author also considers the set of continuous functions \(f \in C^0(M,N)\) for which there exists a sequence \((f_k)\) in \(\mathrm{Conf}(M,N)\) converging to \(f\) in the uniform convergence over compact subsets of \(M\). He obtains a characterization of the closure of \(\mathrm{Conf}(M,N)\) into \(C^0(M,N)\) when \(p+q\geq 3\). It is proved that a continuous limit function \(f\) is always smooth and its level sets are submanifolds of \(M\). In addition, the author describes geometric properties of \(M\) when \(f\) is not a conformal immersion. For instance, he obtains local curvature properties in the Riemannian and Lorentzian cases for which \(\mathrm{Conf}(M,N)\) is not closed into \(C^0(M,N)\). For any two elements \(x,y\) in the same fiber of \(f\), the sequences \((f_k(x))\) and \((f_k(y))\) have the same limit point, and the authors studies the speed at which the sequences tend to each other.