Critical metrics of a scalar curvature functional (Q1304948)

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Critical metrics of a scalar curvature functional
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    Critical metrics of a scalar curvature functional (English)
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    18 March 2001
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    Consider a compact connected \(n\)-manifold \(M\) and an integer \(p\in\mathbb{N}\). Let \({\mathcal M}(N)\) denote the space of Riemannian metrics on \(M\). In her paper, the author studies the critical metrics of the functional \({\mathcal S}^p:{\mathcal M}(M)\to \mathbb{R}\), \(g\mapsto (\int_M R^p_gv_g) (\int_M v_g)^{-{n-2p\over n}}\), where \(R_g\) is the scalar curvature of \(g\). After writing the first variation formulae for \({\mathcal S}^p\) and \({\mathcal S}^p_{|C}\), where \(C\) is a conformal class of \({\mathcal M}(M)\), the author notes that if \(R_g\equiv 0\) or \(g\) is an Einstein metric or \(g\), within \(C\), has constant scalar curvature, then \(g\) is a critical metric. The question examined by the author in the paper is: are the converses true or not? First, the author gives a brief review of known cases according to the values of \(p\). The general case, where the question was still open, she answers affirmatively for \(p\geq \max\{3,{n\over 2}\}\) and also for the more difficult case \(p\geq 2\) when \(n= 2\).
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    conformal class
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    Einstein metric
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    constant scalar curvature
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