Problème de la courbure scalaire prescrite sur les variétés riemanniennes complètes. (The problem of prescribed scalar curvature for complete Riemannian manifolds) (Q1406922)

On a complete Riemannian manifold \((M,g)\) of dimension \(n\geq 3\), the authors study the prescribed scalar curvature problem, that is: Given a \(C^\infty\)-function \(\widetilde f\) on \(M\), there exists a metric \(\widetilde g\), conformal to \(g\), whose scalar curvature coincides with \(\widetilde f\)? This problem has been widely treated in the compact case. So, the authors consider a noncompact manifold \((M,g)\). If the scalar curvature of \(g\) vanishes, for a given function \(\widetilde f\) on \(M\), one needs to discuss the equation \[ \Delta\phi= f\phi^{{n+2\over n-2}},\qquad \phi\in C^\infty(M),\quad \phi> 0,\tag{1} \] where \(f= {n-2\over 4(n-1)}\,\widetilde f\) and \(\Delta\) is the Laplace operator with respect to \(g\). In fact, the metric \(\widetilde g= \phi^{{4\over n-2}}g\) corresponding to any possible solution \(\phi\) of (1) has scalar curvature \(\widetilde f\). The authors assume that \((M,g)\) satisfies: (a) for a fixed point \(P\) in \(M\), the metric \(g\) is equivalent to the Euclidean metric in the exponential chart \((\widetilde M,\exp^{-1}_P)\), where \(\widetilde M= M\setminus \text{Cut\,}P\), (b) the injective radius is positive, c) the Ricci curvature is bounded from below. More precisely, there exists a real number \(\nu> 0\) such that \(\text{Ricci}(Q)\geq -{\nu\over r^2}\), \(r= d(P,Q)\). Note that conditions (b) and (c) imply that the inclusion theorem of Sobolev applies to \((M,g)\). The authors state the following main result. Theorem. Let \((M,g)\) be a complete Riemannian manifold with zero scalar curvature and satisfying (a), (b), (c). Let \(\lambda\in\mathbb{R}\), \(0< \lambda< 1\). Then, there exists \(\varepsilon> 0\) such that each function \(f\in C^\infty(M)\) satisfying \(| f|< \varepsilon\inf[1, r^{-(2+\lambda)}]\) is the scalar curvature of a complete \(C^\infty\)-metric which is conformal to \(g\).