Subconformal Yamabe equation and automorphism groups of almost CR manifolds (Q2256842)

First, the authors recall some properties of geometric structures and some results used in the proofs of their main results. They present some brief explanations about contact sub-Riemannian structures, twisted scalar curvature, orthogonal contact sub-Riemannian structures and the solvability of the subconformal Yamabe problem. Then they recall the definition of \(\mathbf{H}_P\) and the construction of the canonical connection in pseudo-Hermitian geometry. The Heisenberg group with the canonical CR structure plays the role of a model object in CR geometry of strongly pseudo-convex CR manifolds. Recall that the Heisenberg group model is \(\mathbf{H}_P= (\mathbb{R}\times \mathbb{C}^n, H_P,J_P)\) where \(H_P\) is the contact distribution annihilated by \[ \theta_P= dt+i\delta_{\alpha\overline{\beta}}z^\alpha dz^{\overline \beta}- i\delta_{\alpha\overline\beta}z^{\overline \beta}dz^\alpha +P_{\alpha\beta}z^\alpha dz^\beta + P_{\overline{\alpha}\overline{\beta}}z^{\overline\alpha}dz^{\overline{\beta}} \] and \(J_P\) is the model almost contact structure on \(H_P\) defined by the following \((1,0)\)-vector fields: \[ Z_\alpha= {{\partial}\over{\partial z^\alpha}} +(i\delta_{\alpha\overline{\beta}}z^{\overline\beta}+ P_{\alpha\beta}z^\beta){\partial\over{\partial t}},\quad \alpha=1,\dots, n. \] First, the authors obtain a strongly pseudoconvex almost CR manifold with a CR automorphism group acting nonproperly and which is equivalent to \(\mathbf{H}_P\) for some complex skew symmetric matrix \(P\). Theorem 1.2. Let \(M\) be a manifold with strongly pseudoconvex almost CR structure of dimension 5 or 7. Suppose that the automorphism group acts nonproperly on \(M\). If \(M\) is noncompact, then \(M\) is equivalent to \(\mathbf{H}_P\) for a skew symmetric complex matrix \(P\). If \(M\) is compact, then the almost CR structure of \(M\) is integrable and \(M\) is CR equivalent to the unit sphere in the complex Euclidean space. Then the authors introduce an auxiliary contact sub-Riemannian structure and find a new invariant satisfying a Yamabe-type equation. Theorem 1.3. Suppose that \((M^{2n+1},\theta, g)\) is an orthogonal contact sub-Riemannian manifold. For a subconformal change \((\theta^\prime,g^\prime)= (u^{2/n}\theta, u^{2/n}g)\), let \(S\) and \(S^\prime\) be the twisted scalar curvatures for \((\theta, g)\) and \((\theta^\prime, g^\prime)\), respectively. Then \(u\) satisfies \(S^\prime u^{{{2}\over{n}}+1} =Lu\), where \(L=4(n+1)\Delta_b+S\). The operator \(L\) is the subconformal Laplacian operator. The obtained equation is the subconformal Yamabe equation. At the end the authors present constructions of associated othogonal contact sub-Riemannian structures in the 5 and 7-dimensional cases, which yields the result from Theorem 1.2.