A sphere theorem on locally conformally flat even-dimensional manifolds (Q636844)

The authors extend a sphere theorem of \textit{M. J. Gursky} [Indiana Univ. Math. J. 43, No.~3, 747--774 (1994; Zbl 0832.53032)] and \textit{É. Hebey} and \textit{M. Vaugon} [C. R. Acad. Sci., Paris, Sér. I 316, No.~5, 483--488 (1993; Zbl 0770.53030); J. Geom. Anal. 6, No.~4, 531--553 (1996; Zbl 0902.53031)] for Riemannian manifolds \( (M,g) \) in the dimensions \( n = 4 \) or \( 6 \) to the cases \( n \geq 8 \), \( n \) even. The main quantity to be considered in these higher dimensions is the symmetric function of order \( \frac{n}{2} \) of the eigenvalues of a one parameter family \( A_{g}^{t} \) of \( (0,2) \)-tensors, connecting the Ricci tensor for \( t = 0 \) affinely with the Schouten tensor for \( t = 1 \). As a consequence of a more technical `stability result' near \( t = 1 \), they obtain the following theorem: If \( M \) is compact, locally conformally flat, has positive scalar curvature and positive Euler-characteristic, then there is a constant \( t_{0} < 1 \), only depending on \( n, \text{{diam}}(M,g)\) and \(\|\nabla^{2}\text{{Ric}}\| \), such that if all the symmetric functions of \( A_{g}^{t} \) of order up to \( \frac{n}{2} \) are positive for some \( t \in [t_{0},1] \), then \( M \) is diffeomorphic to the sphere or projective space of dimension \( n \). For the \( t \)-independent case, cf. the classification result of \textit{P. Guan, J. Viaclovsky} and \textit{G. Wang} [Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 355, No.~3, 925--933 (2003; Zbl 1022.53035), Corollary 1]. The proof is based on an analysis of the one parameter family of PDEs expressing the positivity of the \( \frac{n}{2} \)-symmetric function of \( A_{\tilde{g}}^{t} \) of the conformally changed metric \( \tilde{g} \), including its ellipticity, the Gauss/Bonnet/Chern formula in its variant of \textit{J. A. Viaclovsky} [Duke Math. J. 101, No.~2, 283--316 (2000; Zbl 0990.53035)] for locally conformally flat manifolds and a vanishing theorem of \textit{M. Del Mar González} [Duke Math. J. 129, No.~3, 551--572 (2005; Zbl 1088.53023)] for certain Betti numbers.