Blowup behavior of mean field type equations (Q1571106)

This is a survey paper about the equation \[ \triangle_g u +\rho\left (\frac{he^u}{\int_M he^u dv_g}-1\right) =0\quad \text{ on} M\tag{1} \] where \((M,g)\) is a compact Riemann surface without boundary and \(h(x)\) is a smooth positive function on \(M\), assuming that the area of \(M\) is normalized. When \(M\) is the standard sphere and \(\rho=8\pi\) the problem to find a solution of equation \((1)\) is the so-called Nirenberg problem. The authors report some classical and new results on the study of equation \((1)\) (by the authors and by others). In doing this, they point out the two main approaches for this problem; namely, the variational method and the Leray-Schauder degree.