Unconditional existence of conformally hyperbolic Yamabe flows (Q2210882)

Let \((M,g_M)\) be a Riemannian manifold. Given an initial metric \(g_0\) conformal to \(g_M\), the Yamabe flow with initial metric \(g_0\) is given by \[ \frac{\partial}{\partial t} g(t) = -R_{g(t)} g(t), \qquad g(0)= g_0, \eqno(1) \] where \(R_g\) denotes the scalar curvature of \((M,g)\). \textit{R. S. Hamilton} [Lectures on geometric flows, Unpublished Manuscript (1989)] introduced this flow as an alternative approach to the Yamabe problem, and showed that solutions exist on any compact manifold \((M,g_0)\) without boundary. Since then a more complete theory on compact manifolds has been developed with major contributions by various authors. In dimension two, \textit{G. Giesen} and \textit{P. M. Topping} [Commun. Partial Differ. Equations 36, No. 10--12, 1860--1880 (2011; Zbl 1233.35123)] and \textit{P. Topping} [J. Eur. Math. Soc. (JEMS) 12, No. 6, 1429--1451 (2010; Zbl 1202.53067); Geom. Topol. 19, No. 3, 1477--1492 (2015; Zbl 1323.53080)] proved the existence and uniqueness of instantaneously complete solutions to (1) on an arbitrary, possibly incomplete, surface \((M,g_0)\). Instantaneous completeness means that \((M,g(t))\) is geodesically complete for all \(t>0\). Later the author [Calc. Var. Partial Differ. Equ. 58, No. 6, Paper No. 190, 30 p. (2019; Zbl 1428.53108)] extended Giesen and Topping's existence result to noncompact manifolds conformally equivalent to hyperbolic space \((\mathbb{H}, g_{\mathbb{H}})\) of dimension \(m\ge 3\), provided that the conformal factor and the initial scalar curvature are both uniformly bounded from above. In the present paper, the author improves on this result by showing that the bounds on the conformal factor and scalar curvature are not needed: there exists an instantaneously complete solution of (1) for any initial metric \(g(0)\) conformally equivalent to \(g_{\mathbb{H}}\). Furthermore, the solution exists for all \(t\in[0,\infty)\) and satisfies the bound \(g(t)\ge m(m-1)t g_{\mathbb{H}}\) for all \(t>0\). In addition, he shows that for \(g(0)=g_{\mathbb{H}}\), the only solution of (1) is \(g(t)=(m(m-1)t+1)g_{\mathbb{H}}\). The author conjectures that the existence proof can be generalized to any noncompact manifold \((M,g_M)\) with scalar curvature bounded between two negative constants, and that uniqueness should hold in the class of instantaneously complete Yamabe flows. Examples show that in general uniqueness does not hold for (1).