Positive scalar curvature and local actions of nonabelian Lie groups (Q5895235)

Lawson and Yau had earlier proved that if a compact, nonabelian Lie group G acts smoothly and effectively on a compact manifold M, then M admits a Riemannian metric of positive scalar curvature. The author of this paper shows the same conclusion under somewhat weaker assumptions. He proves that ``If a compact manifold M admits a local action by nonabelian Lie groups, then it admits a Riemannian metric of positive scalar curvature.'' The author provides a method of constructing local actions from global ones and illustrates some flexibility of \({\mathcal N}\)- structures, which is not shared by global actions. He also supplies examples of manifolds which admit local actions but no global action by a nonabelian group.