``Large'' conformal metrics of prescribed Gauss curvature on surfaces of higher genus (Q2351856)

Let \((M,g_0)\) be a closed Riemann surface of genus at least two. In the paper [Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 347, No. 3, 1059--1066 (1995; Zbl 0827.58050)] \textit{W.-Y. Ding} et al. determined whether or not there exist conformal metrics with prescribed Gauss curvature. If the prescribed Gauss curvature is not positive, then there is a unique conformal metric with such Gauss curvature. Uniqueness may be lost when the prescribed Gauss curvature is sign-changing. In particular, in the cited paper it is shown that given a smooth nonconstant function \(K_0\) on \(M\), with \(\max K_0=0\), for sufficiently small \(\lambda >0\) there exist at least two distinct conformal metrics, \(g_\lambda = e^{2u_\lambda}g_0\) and \(g^\lambda = e^{2u^\lambda}g_0\), of the same Gauss curvature \(K_{g_\lambda} = K_{g^\lambda} = K_0+\lambda\). In the paper under review the authors obtain, by means of a more refined mountain-pass technique, additional estimates for the ``large'' solutions \(u^\lambda\). They show that the two conformal metrics differ (essentially) only by huge spherical bubbles of curvature \(\lambda\) attached along cusps protruding from \(M\) near certain zero points of \(K_0\). In a later paper [\textit{M. del Pino} et al., Calc. Var. Partial Differ. Equ. 54, No. 1, 763--789 (2015; Zbl 1329.53057)] multiple branches of bubbling solutions have been obtained.