Blow-up phenomena for the Yamabe equation. II (Q1004353)

The authors investigate the compactness comjecture for the sphere \(S^n\). They consider the Yamabe PDE which is concerned with finding a metric of constant scalar curvature in the conformal class of \(g\). They demonstrate that there exists a Riemannian metric \(g\) on \(S^n\) of class \(C^{\infty }\) and a sequence of positive functions \(v_{\nu }\in C^{\infty }(S^n)\), \(\nu \in {\mathbb N}\), so that (i) \(g\) is not conformally flat; (ii) \(v_{\nu }\) is a solution of the Yamabe PDE for all \(\nu \in {\mathbb N}\); (iii) \(E_g(v_{\nu }) <Y(S^n)\) for all \(\nu \in {\mathbb N}\), and \(E_g(v_{\nu }) \to Y(S^n)\) as \(\nu \to \infty \); (iv) \(\sup_{S^n} v_{\nu } \to \infty \) as \(\nu \to \infty \), where \(Y(S^n)\) denotes the Yamabe energy of the round metric on \(S^n\). In comparison one could mention that for each integer \(n\geq 52\) there exists a smooth Riemannian metric \(g\) on \(S^n\) such that a set of constant scalar curvature metrics in the conformal class of \(g\) is non-compact. Results on lower dimensions are also discussed in the article in relation with the works of others authors. [For part I, cf. J. Am. Math. Soc. 21, No. 4, 951--979 (2008).]