\(Q\)-curvature and Poincaré metrics (Q699269)

In the paper under review the authors present a new definition of Branson's \(Q\)-curvature in even dimensional conformal geometry. In [\textit{C.~R.~Graham} and \textit{M.~Zworski}, Invent. Math. 152, 89--118 (2003; Zbl 1030.58022)] it was shown that the conformally invariant powers of the Laplacian and the \(Q\)-curvature arise naturally in scattering theory for Poincaré metrics associated to the conformal structure. This can be thought of as providing a different (indirect) definition of the \(Q\)-curvature, in which the analytic continuation in the dimension is replaced by an analytic continuation in a spectral parameter with the dimension fixed. The paper provide a direct definition in the context of the Poincaré metric.