Extremal metrics for Laplace eigenvalues in perturbed conformal classes on products (Q2318033)

For a closed manifold, the author is interested in the eigenvalues of the Laplace operator considered as functionals of the metric. He proves that conformal classes which are small perturbations of a product conformal class on a product with a standard sphere admit a metric extremal for some Laplace eigenvalue. As part of the arguments, he obtains perturbed harmonic maps with constant density. This paper is organized as follows: the first section is an introduction to the subject. In the second section the author explains the notion of extremal metrics and its connection to eigenmaps. He discusses the necessary preliminaries on \(n\)-harmonic maps and Laplace eigenvalues. The third section contains the proofs of the main results.