Weyl curvature and the Euler characteristic in dimension four (Q2489749)

Let \(M\) be a smooth closed Riemannian \(4\)-manifold. The \(L^2\)-norm of the Weyl curvature \(\int_M| W| ^2\) depends only on the conformal class of the Riemannian metric on \(M\) and measures its lack of conformal flatness. In the present paper, the author gives lower bounds for the \(L^2\)-norm of the Weyl curvature of \(4\)-manifolds in terms of their Euler characteristic. If \(M\) has positive scalar curvature, \textit{M. J. Gursky} [Indiana Univ. Math. J. 43, No. 3, 747--774 (1994; Zbl 0832.53032)] obtained the bound \[ \int_M| W| ^2\geq 8\pi^2(\chi(M)-2), \] equality holding if and only if the metric is conformal to an Einstein metric. In the first part of the paper, the author gives a simple proof of this result using the stereographic projection obtained by means of the Green's function of the conformal Laplacian. In the second part, he gives an analoguous bound for metrics \(g\) on \(M\) having negative scalar curvature \(s_g\). More precisely, he shows that if \(s_g+c| W| \geq 0\) for some \(c>0\) and provided there is a metric \(h\) conformal to \(g\) with \(\int_M s_h\leq 0\), then \[ \int_M| W| ^2\geq{{8\pi^2}\over{1+c^2/24}}\chi(M). \] Moreover, equality holds if and only if \(g\) is an Einstein metric with \(s_g+c| W| \equiv 0\).