A class of solutions of the vacuum Einstein constraint equations with freely specified mean curvature (Q730678)

The author uses the conformal method (initiated by Lichnerowicz and developed by Choquet-Bruhat and York) in order to construct solutions of the vacuum Einstein constraint equations on compact manifolds. The novelty consists in the absence of the restrictions imposed a priori on the mean curvature of the (space-like) 3-manifold involved in the initial data. The author compares his result with other known theorems, which require the mean curvature be constant, or ``near constant''.