Geometric inequalities on locally conformally flat manifolds (Q1880382)

The authors study inequalites among global curvature invariants related to the Schouten tensor on a locally conformally flat, compact Riemannian manifold \((M,g)\). The fundamental quantities, that are studied, are integrals of the \(\sigma_k\)-scalar curvature: \[ {\mathcal F}_k(g)=\text{vol}(g)^{-(n-2k)\over n}\int_M\sigma_k(g) \,dg, \] for \(k=0,1,\dots,n\). Here the \(\sigma_k\)-scalar curvature is defined as \(\sigma_k(g):=\sigma_k(g^{-1}S_g)\), where \(\sigma_k\) is the \(k\)-th elementary symmetric function and \(S_g\) the Schouten tensor: \[ S_g={1\over n-2}\biggl( \text{Ric}_g-{R_g\over 2(n-1)}g\biggr). \] Here Ric\(_g\) is the Ricci tensor and \(R_g\) is the scalar curvature. The main result of this paper establishes inequalities between \({\mathcal F}_k(g)\) and \({\mathcal F}_l(g)\) for \(l<k\), where \(g\) is assumed to be in the conformal class of a smooth background metric \(g_0\). All metrics are assumed to have positive \(\Gamma_k\)-curvature, which means that the \(\sigma_j\)-scalar curvature is positive for \(\forall j\leq k\). Depending on the range of \(k\) and \(l\), three types of inequalities are established: (A) a Sobolev type inequality for \(0\leq l<k<{n\over 2}\), (B) a conformal quermass-integral type inequality for \({n\over 2}\leq k\leq n,1\leq l<k\) and (C) a Moser-Trudinger type inequality if \(k={n\over 2}\). For \(k\geq{n\over 2}\) it is known that a compact, locally conformally flat manifold \((M,g)\) with positive \(\Gamma_k\)-curvature is conformally equivalent to a spherical space form, see \textit{P. Guan, J. Viaclovsky} and \textit{G. Wang} [Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 355, No. 3, 925--933 (2003; Zbl 1022.53035)]. Cases of equality in (B) and (C) are characterized as arising exactly when \((M,g)\) is a spherical space form. The authors prove their main theorem by studying an associated nonlinear flow of metrics. A main part of the paper is dedicated to establishing global existence and convergence of this flow.