Pseudo-conformal actions of the Möbius group (Q6123248)

A famous conjecture by A. Lichnerowicz suggested that for a compact Riemannian manifold \((M,g)\) of dimension \(n\geq 2\), if the conformal group Conf\((M, g)\) is essential (meaning it does not preserve any metric in the conformal class \([g]\)), then \((M, g)\) must be the standard sphere. This was independently confirmed by proofs given by \textit{M. Obata}, [J. Differ. Geom. 6, 247--258 (1971; Zbl 0236.53042)] and \textit{J. Lelong-Ferrand}, [C. R. Acad. Sci., Paris, Sér. A 269, 583--586 (1969; Zbl 0201.09701)]. Extending this idea, \textit{G. D'Ambra} and \textit{M. Gromov}, [in: Surveys in differential geometry. Vol. I: Proceedings of the conference on geometry and topology, held at Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA, April 27-29, 1990. Providence, RI: American Mathematical Society; Bethlehem, PA: Lehigh University. 19--111 (1991; Zbl 0752.57017)] introduced the ``pseudo-Riemannian Lichnerowicz Conjecture,'' which proposes that for a compact pseudo-Riemannian manifold \((M,g)\) of dimension \(n\geq 3\), if the conformal group \(Conf(M, g)\) is essential, then \((M, g)\) is conformally flat. This conjecture was disproved by \textit{C. Frances}, [Transform. Groups 20, No. 4, 1015--1022 (2015; Zbl 1335.53097)] who constructed examples of compact pseudo-Riemannian manifolds of signature \((p, q)\), with \(n=p+q\) and \(2\leq p \leq q\), having an essential conformal group, and which are not conformally flat. In this paper, the authors establish that given a connected and compact pseudo-Riemannian manifold \((M, g)\), if the conformal group \(Conf(M, g)\) contains a Lie subgroup \(G\) that acts transitively and essentially on \((M, g)\) and the non-compact semi-simple part of \(G\) is locally isomorphic to the Möbius group \(SO(1, n + 1)\), then \((M, g)\) is conformally flat.