A scalar curvature flow in low dimensions (Q526921)

Let \(M=(M^n,g_0)\) be a smooth and closed Riemannian manifold, \(n=3,4,5,\) with volume measure \(\mu_{g_0}\) and scalar curvature \(R_{g_0}.\) Assume that the Yamabe invariant \[ Y(M,g_0)=\inf_{\mathcal{A}} \dfrac{\int c_n |\nabla u|^2_{g_0}+R_{g_0}u^2d\mu_{g_0}}{\big(\int u^{\frac{2n}{n-2}}d\mu_{g_0}\big)^{\frac{n-2}{n}}} \] is positive, where \(c_n=4\frac{n-1}{n-2}\) and \(\mathcal{A}=\{u\in W^{1,2}_{g_0}(M):\;u\geq0,\;u\not\equiv0\}.\) For a smooth function \(K>0\) on \(M,\) the author considers a conformal flow, that tends to prescribe \(K\) as the scalar curvature of a conformal metric. The main result of the paper asserts global existence of such flow. Moreover, in the case when \(M\) is not conformally equivalent to the standard sphere, smooth convergence and solvability of the prescribed scalar curvature problem are proved under suitable conditions on \(K.\)