On the Yamabe problem concerning the compact locally conformally flat manifolds (Q1077738)

The author constructs some explicit functions on simple manifolds such as products of a circle by spheres, or quotients of products of hyperbolic spaces by spheres whose Yamabe quotients are strictly less than the critical value known to be achieved on the standard sphere. For these special conformally flat manifolds and their connected sums, this gives a simpler solution to the Yamabe conjecture than does the complete one due to \textit{R. Schoen} [cf. J. Differ. Geom. 20, 479-495 (1984; Zbl 0576.53028)]. Without stating it explicitly, the article corrects the misleading statement [cf. the author's announcement in C. R. Acad. Sci., Paris, Sér. I 300, 75-77 (1985; Zbl 0579.53034)] that all presently known conformally flat manifolds could be viewed as connected sums of \(S^ 1\times S^{n-1}\) by another conformally flat manifold.