Algebraic topology methods for the prescribed scalar curvature problem (Q1368055)

Let \((M_n,g)\) be a compact \(C^\infty\) Riemannian manifold. We discuss the following problem: What functions of class \(C^\infty\) on \(M\) are the scalar curvature of some conformal metric to \(g\)? The article considers the positive case (i.e., when the conformal Laplacian \(-L=- \Delta+{n-2\over 4(n-1)} R\) is invertible). \(R\) is the scalar curvature of \((M,g)\); since the Yamable problem is solved, without loss of generality, we can suppose that \(R={4(n-1)\over n-2}\). There are two approaches to this problem: One by minimization (used by the first author twenty years ago and more recently by many others) and the second by topological arguments (Bahri and Coron introduced this method which was developed by many authors). The article adresses the dimension \(n\geq 5\). The proofs can be extended to the sphere \(S_3\) and to dimension 4 but some details of the proof are different. Given a smooth function \(K\) on \(M\) (at least \(C^3)\) which has only nondegenerate critical points \(y_i\) \((0\leq i\leq s)\), we introduce the following hypotheses: \((\text{A}_1)\) \(-\Delta K(y_i)>0\) for \(i\leq\ell\) \((0\leq\ell< s)\) and \(-\Delta K(y_i)< 0\) when \(i>\ell\). Moreover, \(K(y_0)\geq\cdots\geq K(y_\ell)> K(y_{\ell+1})\geq\cdots\geq K(y_s)\). \((\text{A}_2)\) If at some critical points \(y_i\) \((1\leq i\leq\ell)\), \(-\Delta K(y_i)\leq 0\), we assume that their Morse index lies between \(n- m+2\) and \(n-2\), or smaller than \(n-m-2\), \(m\) an integer defined in \(\text{A}_3\). \((\text{A}_3)\) Let \(Z\) be a pseudo-gradient of \(K\) which has the Morse-Smale property, \(X=\overline{\bigcup_{0\leq i\leq\ell} W_s(y_i)}\), \(W_s(y_i)\) being the stable manifold of \(y_i\) for \(Z\). \(X\) is assumed to be noncontractible, let \(m\) denote the order of the first nonzero reduced homology group. \((\text{A}_4)\) \(X\) is assumed to be contractible in \(K^c= \{x\in M\mid K(x)\geq c\}\), for a real positive number \(c<K(y_\ell)\). Theorem: Assume \(\text{A}_1\), \(\text{A}_3\), \(\text{A}_4\) or \(\text{A}_2\), \(\text{A}_3\), \(\text{A}_4\) hold, then there exists a constant \(c_0\) independent of \(K\) such that if \(K(y_0)/c\leq 1+c_0\), \(K\) is the scalar curvature of a metric conformal to \(g\). Remark: We do not assume that \(K\) is positive everywhere. The equation to solve is \[ -\Delta u+ u= Ku^{(n+2)/(n- 2)},\quad u>0.\tag{\(*\)} \] Consider \(\Sigma^+= \{v\in H_1/v\geq 0\) and \(|v|_{H_1}= 1\}\) and on \(\Sigma^+\) the functional \[ \widetilde J:\widetilde J(V)= [\int K(x)v^{2n/(n- 2)}dV]^{(2- n)/n}. \] The proof is by contradiction, assume that \((*)\) has no solution. On \(\Sigma^+\), \(\widetilde J\) does not satisfy the Palais-Smale condition. The sequences \(\{u_k\}\) failing the Palais-Smale condition are known. Let \(\delta(a,\lambda)(x)= \text{Const.}[\lambda/(1+ \lambda^2|x-a|^2)]^{(n- 2)/2}\), \(\lambda>0\), \(a\in\mathbb{R}^n\) denote the family of functions on \(\mathbb{R}^n\) (depending on \(n+1\) parameters) which are the solutions of \(-\Delta\varphi= n(n-2)\varphi^{(n+ 2)/(n-2)}\). These functions are grafted on the manifold, yielding functions \(\widehat\delta(a, \lambda)\), \(a\in M\). Critical points at infinity live among these functions. Under the assumption \(K(y_0)/c\leq 1+c_0\) with \(c_0\) small enough (\(c_0\) is of the order of 1), the critical points at infinity correspond to sequences \(\widehat\delta(a_i, \lambda_i)\) with a simple point of concentration \(y_j\) in \(K^c\) (\(c_i\to y_j\), \(\lambda_i\to+\infty\)). We compute an asymptotic expansion in \(\lambda\) of the homogeneous functional \(J(v)= |v|^2_{H_1}\widetilde J(v)\). Since \(c_0\) is small enough, the asymptotes of \(J\) correspond to the critical points \(y_0\), \(y_1\), \(y_\ell\). The unstable manifold at infinity for each of these asymptotes \(W_u(y_0)_\infty,\dots, W_u(y_\ell)_\infty\) may be described as \(W_s(y_0),\dots, W_s(y_\ell)\). Let \(c_1= b_nK(y_\ell)^{(2-n)/n}\) with \(b_n= {n(n- 2)\over 4} \omega^{2/n}_n\) (\(\omega_n\) the volume of \(S_n(1)\)). Since \(J\) has no critical point by hypothesis, \(J_{c_1}\) retracts by deformation on \(X_\infty= \bigcup^\ell_{j= 1} W_u(y_j)_\infty\) which is nothing else than \(X\times [A,\infty[\), \(A\) large. By \(\text{A}_4\), \(X_\infty\) is contractible in \(J_{c_2}\) with \(c_2= b_nc^{(2-n)/n}+\varepsilon\) (\(\varepsilon>0\) small). We then derive that \(X_\infty\), hence also \(X\) is contractible, which is in contradiction with \(\text{A}_3\). The exhibited solution of \((*)\) has a Morse index, in the large sense, larger than or equal to \(m\). For the second result, we approximate \(K\) by \(\widetilde K\) in \(C^2\) so that we can apply the first result to \(\widetilde K\) (\(\widetilde K\) has the same critical points with the same Morse index but \(-\Delta\widetilde K(y_i)>0\) for \(i\leq\ell\)). \(\widetilde J\) may have critical points with energy smaller than \(c_2+\varepsilon\), but it is proved that their index is at most \(m-2\) if \(\widetilde K\) is well chosen. These critical points cannot cancel (in the homology exact sequence of the level sets of \(J\)) a homology class of dimension \(m\). Thus the contraction remains.