Extremals for logarithmic Hardy-Littlewood-Sobolev inequalities on compact manifolds (Q2480858)

Let \(\Gamma\) be a conformal class of metrics on a closed connected surface \(M\) with each metric normalized to have area \(V\). For a metric \(g\in \Gamma\), denote the area element by \(dV\) and the Laplace-Beltrami operator by \(\Delta_g\). The Robin mass \(m(x)\) at a point \(x\in M\) is defined to be the value of the Green's function \(G(x, y)\) at \(y=x\) after the logarithmic singularity has been subtracted off. The regularized trace of \(\Delta_g^{-1}\) is defined by \(\text{trace} (\Delta^{-1}) = \int_M m \,dV\). This agrees with the zeta functional regularization and thus a special invariant. Let \(\Delta_{S^2,V}\) be the Laplace-Beltrami operator on the round sphere of volume \(V\). The author shows that if there exists a \(g \in \Gamma\) with \(\text{trace} (\Delta_g^{-1}) < \text{trace} (\Delta_{S^2, V}^{-1})\), then the minimum of \(\text{trace}(\Delta^{-1})\) over \(\Gamma\) is attained by a metric in \(\Gamma\) for which the Robin mass is constant. In fact, the author proves theses results in the general setting, where \(M\) is an \(n\)-dimensional closed connected manifold and the Laplace-Beltrami operator is replaced by any non-negative elliptic operator \(A\) of degree \(n\) which is conformally covariant in the sense that for the metric \(g\) we have \(A_{F^{\frac{2}{n}} g} = F^{-1} A_g\). In this case the role of \(\Delta_{S^2,V}\) is assumed by the Paneitz or GJMS operator on the round \(n\)-sphere of volume \(V\). Explicitly these results are logarithmic Hardy-Littlewood-Sobolev inequalities for \((M, g)\). By duality the author obtains analogs of the Onofri-Beckner theorem [\textit{E. Onofri}, Commun. Math. Phys. 86, 321--326 (1982; Zbl 0506.47031)]. The construction is systematic and clear.