Projective compactness and conformal boundaries (Q343186)

The paper under review deals with the \textit{projective compactness} of pseudo-Riemannian manifolds. It is focused on further development of the foundational theory of compactification and continues the authors' previous article [J. Reine Angew. Math. 717, 47--75 (2016; Zbl 1352.53017)] where an original approach to projective compactness was discussed. By definition, a linear connection \(\nabla\) on a smooth manifold \(M\) with boundary \(\partial M\) is called \textit{projectively compact of order} \(\alpha>0\), if for any point \(x\in \partial M\) there is a local defining function \(\rho\) for \(\partial M\) defined on a neighborhood \(U\) of \(x\) such that the projectively modified connection \(\widehat\nabla = \nabla + \frac{d\rho}{\alpha\rho}\) admits a smooth extension from \(U \cap M\) to all of \(U\). This means that for all vector fields \(\xi\), \(\eta\) smooth up to the boundary one has that \( \widehat\nabla_\xi\eta = \nabla_\xi\eta + \frac{1}{\alpha\rho}\,d\rho(\xi)\eta + \frac{1}{\alpha\rho}\,d\rho(\eta)\xi\) admits a smooth extension to the boundary too. Via the notion of Levi-Civita connection, the concept of projective compactness applies to pseudo-Riemannian manifolds and may be viewed as an alternative to conformal compactification [\textit{C. Fefferman} and \textit{C. R. Graham}, The ambient metric. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press (2012; Zbl 1243.53004)]. The main attention in the article is paid to pseudo-Riemannian manifolds which are projectively compact of order 2. As one of the main results, the authors prove a necessary condition for a pseudo-Riemannian manifold to be projectively compact of order 2. This necessary condition, which was known to be sufficient, deals with specific differential forms called asymptotic. Besides, it is shown that if a pseudo-Riemannian manifold \(M\) is projectively compact of order 2, then the Levi-Civita connection on \(M\) generates a non-degenerate conformal structure on \(\partial M\), and the manifold is necessarily asymptotically Einstein. Numerous relationships revealed by the projective compactness between the intrinsic geometry of \(M\) and the extrinsic geometry of \(\partial M\) as a limit hypersurface in \(\bar M = M\cup\partial M\) are discussed too.