The action of conformal transformations on a Riemannian manifold (Q1910161)

``The following assertion was accepted for twenty years when, in 1992, R. J. Zimmer and K. R. Gutschera discovered a very important gap in the only known proof of it: Theorem A. Let \(C(M)\) be the whole conformal group of a Riemannian manifold \(M\) with \(\dim M=n\geq 2\). If \(M\) is not conformally equivalent with \(S^n\) or \(E^n\), then \(C(M)\) is inessential, i.e., can be reduced to a group of isometries by a conformal change of metric.'' The author's purpose is to give a new, independent proof of the theorem.