Invariant theory and calculus for conformal geometries (Q5955176)

A conformal geometry on a manifold \(M\) is an equivalence class of Riemannian metrics on~\(M\) that differ only by multiplication with a scalar function. If \(\dim M\geq 3\), then conformal geometries possess local invariants. Here, a \textit{local invariant} is an invariant polynomial~\(I(g)\) in the coefficients of a metric~\(g\) and their derivatives such that~\(I(\Omega^2g)=\Omega^u I(g)\). If~\(d\) is the degree of the polynomial~\(I\) and~\(k\) is the total number of derivatives involved, then \(u=-(2d+k)\). By recent work of Fefferman and Graham, for odd-dimensional conformal manifolds, all such invariants can be obtained using Fefferman's ambient metric construction as described by \textit{T. N. Bailey, M. G. Eastwood} and \textit{C. R. Graham} in [Ann. Math. (2) 139, No. 3, 491-552 (1994; Zbl 0814.53017)]. In even-dimensional conformal geometry, the ambient metric construction is obstructed, and the methods above only give a finite number of independent invariants. The paper under review uses T. Y. Thomas' tractor calculus, in a way similar to the author's approach in [Math. Ann. 306, 513-538 (1996; Zbl 0904.53014)]. The author presents a method for the construction of so-called quasi-Weyl invariants and proves that in each fixed dimension, all local invariants are quasi-Weyl except for a finite number of values of \(d\) and \(k\). In odd dimensions, the quasi-Weyl invariants above are in fact Weyl invariants, which are easier to describe.