Aubin type almost sharp Moser-Trudinger inequality revisited (Q2154913)

The present paper provides a new proof of the almost-sharp Moser-Trudinger inequality on a smooth compact Riemannian manifold \((M, g)\), \[ \int_M \exp \left( (a_n - \epsilon) \frac{|u|^\frac{n}{n-1}}{\|\nabla u\|_{L^n(M)}^\frac{n}{n-1}} \right) \, d \mu_g \leq c (\epsilon) < \infty , \] for \(a_n = n |\mathbb S^{n-1}|^\frac{1}{n-1}\) and every \(\epsilon > 0\), which is originally due to \textit{L. Fontana} [Comment. Math. Helv. 68, No. 3, 415--454 (1993; Zbl 0844.58082)]. In the new approach presented here, the above inequality on \(M\) is derived from the sharp Moser inequality with best constant \(a_n\) on the Euclidean ball \(B_R\), similarly to the proof of the almost-sharp Sobolev inequality on manifolds by \textit{T. Aubin} [J. Differ. Geom. 11, 573--598 (1976; Zbl 0371.46011)]. Similar results are obtained for manifolds with boundary and higher-order inequalities of Moser-Trudinger type.