scientific article; zbMATH DE number 1182453

It is well-known that a (semi)-Riemannian manifold \((M,g)\), \(n = \dim M \geq 3\), is said to be an Einstein manifold if at every point of \(M\) its Ricci tensor \(S\) is proportional to the metric tensor \(g\), i. e., if \(S = \frac{\kappa }{n} g\) holds on \(M\), where \(\kappa \) is the scalar curvature of \((M,g)\). In the present paper, a review as well as comments about the results on 4-dimensional compact Riemannian Einstein manifolds is given. Namely, the presented results are related to the following fundamental problems: (1) which smooth compact 4-dimensional manifolds admit Einstein metrics, and modulo diffeomorphisms and rescalings, (2) how many Einstein metrics exist on a given smooth compact 4-manifold. The author discusses two new sets of techniques which yield results concerning 4-dimensional compact manifolds: Seiberg-Witten theory and the entropy method. On the one hand, Seiberg-Witten theory gives us differential-topological invariants which allow to estimate the scalar curvature of a metric in relation to its volume. On the other hand, the entropy method instead allows to deduce Ricci curvature estimates from homothopy theoretic assumptions. For the entire collection see [Zbl 0890.00046].

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