Nonexistence of complete conformal metrics with prescribed scalar curvatures on a manifold of nonpositive curvature (Q596795)

The authors consider the following problem: Let \((M, g)\) be a smooth, complete Riemannian manifold without boundary and let \(K\) be a \(C^\infty\)-function on \(M\). Is it possible to find a complete metric \(\overline g\) on \(M\) which is conformal to \(g\) and such that \(K\) is the scalar curvature of \(\overline g\). Putting \(\overline g= u^{4/n-2}g\) for some \(u> 0\) on \(M^n\), \(n= \dim M\geq 3\), this is equivalent to the problem of finding a positive solution of the equation \(c_n\Delta u- ku+ Ku^\sigma= 0\), where \(c_n= 4(n-1)/(n- 2)\), \(\sigma= (n+2)/(n-2)\) and \(k\) is the scalar curvature of \((M, g)\). For \(M\) compact and \(K\) constant, this is the Yamabe problem which has already been solved. For \((M, g)\) complete, one only has partial answers. In this paper the authors consider the case of complete, simply connected, smooth manifolds of non-positive sectional curvature which are strongly symmetric around a point \(0\) of \(M\) (i.e., every linear isometry \(T_0M\to T_0M\) is the differential of an isometry on \(M\)). (Such spaces are also called models and \(\mathbb{R}^n\) and \(\mathbb{H}^n\) are examples.) They derive, without imposing that the Ricci curvature is bounded from below, that there exists an a priori estimate related to a \(C^2\)-positive solution \(u\) of the equation above when \(K> 0\) and \(n\geq 4\). Furthermore, this result leads to a nonexistence result for such solutions \(u\).