The relative Yamabe invariant (Q1811409)

The authors develop approximation techniques which lead to gluing theorems of two manifolds along their boundaries for the relative Yamabe invariant. It is shown that there are many examples of manifolds with both positive and non-positive relative Yamabe invariants. They construct families of four-manifolds with strictly negative relative Yamabe invariant and provide an exact computation of the invariant. The proofs of the theorems are well written.