Prescribing Morse scalar curvatures: incompatibility of non existence (Q6141045)

For a closed and smooth Riemannian manifold \(M^n, n\ge 2\), the prescribed scalar curvature problem is concerned with the question of which functions \(K\) on \(M\) can be prescribed as the scalar curvature \(R = R_g\) on \(M\) for some metric \(g\) on \(M\), i.e., the solvability of the equation \(R_g =K\). The main result of this paper shows, that in a certain local sense there exists always at most one combination of critical points of \(K\) with negative Laplacian such that we cannot assure existence of solutions (Proposition 4.2, Theorem 1.5). The proofs combine methods from conformal geometry and critical point theory. Other author's papers directly connected to this topic are [Geom. Flows 4, 51--82 (2019; Zbl 1439.58007); Calc. Var. Partial Differ. Equ. 56, No. 2, Paper No. 24, 41 p. (2017; Zbl 1370.58016); Adv. Calc. Var. 15, No. 2, 151--190 (2022; Zbl 1485.58014); \textit{A. Malchiodi} and \textit{M. Mayer}, J. Differ. Equations 268, No. 5, 2089--2124 (2020; Zbl 1432.53056); Int. Math. Res. Not. 2021, No. 16, 12532--12612 (2021; Zbl 1484.35203); Commun. Pure Appl. Math. 76, No. 2, 406--449 (2023; Zbl 07779766)].