Mass endomorphism and spinorial Yamabe type problems on conformally flat manifolds (Q871742)

Let \((M,g,\sigma)\) be a conformally flat compact spin manifold of dimension \(n\geq 2\), \(D\) the Dirac operator with \(\ker (D)=0.\) For a metric \(\widetilde g\) in the conformal class \([g]\) let \(\lambda_1^+(\widetilde g), (\lambda^-_1(\widetilde g))\) be the smallest positive (the largest negative) eigenvalue of \(D\). The authors define the mass endomorphism as the constant term in the Green function for \(D\) and prove that if the mass endomorphism possesses a positive eigenvalue, then \[ \lambda_{\min}^+(M,[g],\sigma)=\inf_{\widetilde g\in [g]}\lambda^+_1(\widetilde g) \text{Vol}(M,\widetilde g)^{\frac 1n} \leq\lambda^+_{\min}(S^n)=\tfrac n2\omega_n^{\frac 1n}, \] where \(S^n\) is the standard sphere with volume \(\omega_n\) and a similar estimate holds for \((\lambda^-_1(\widetilde g))\). They prove that in dimensions \(n=0,1,2 \bmod 4\,\) the strict inequality holds if the mass endomorphism is not identically zero. This result is applied to show that the smallest positive eigenvalue of \(D\) can attain its infimum.