Extremal metrics for the \(Q^\prime\)-curvature in three dimensions (Q1725581)

Summary: We construct contact forms with constant \(Q^\prime\)-curvature on compact three-dimensional CR manifolds which admit a pseudo-Einstein contact form and satisfy some natural positivity conditions. These contact forms are obtained by minimizing the CR analogue of the \(II\)-functional from conformal geometry. Two crucial steps are to show that the \(P^\prime\)-operator can be regarded as an elliptic pseudodifferential operator and to compute the leading order terms of the asymptotic expansion of the Green function for \(\sqrt{P^\prime}\).