Non-uniqueness results for critical metrics of regularized determinants in four dimensions

DOI10.1007/S00220-012-1535-7MaRDI QIDQ455682zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors Andrea Malchiodi, Matthew J. Gursky

Publication date 22 October 2012

Published in Communications in Mathematical Physics (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/1105.3762

zbMATH Keywords

Hodge Laplacianregularized determinantconformal Laplaciangauge equivalencePaneitz operator

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Global Riemannian geometry, including pinching (53C20) Applications of differential geometry to physics (53Z05) Determinants and determinant bundles, analytic torsion (58J52) Gravitational interaction in quantum theory (81V17)

Abstract: The regularized determinant of the Paneitz operator arises in quantum gravity (see Connes 1994, IV.4.$gamma$). An explicit formula for the relative determinant of two conformally related metrics was computed by Branson in Branson (1996). A similar formula holds for Cheeger's half-torsion, which plays a role in self-dual field theory (see Juhl, 2009), and is defined in terms of regularized determinants of the Hodge laplacian on $p$-forms ($p<n/2$). In this article we show that the corresponding actions are unbounded (above and below) on any conformal four-manifold. We also show that the conformal class of the round sphere admits a second solution which is not given by the pull-back of the round metric by a conformal map, thus violating uniqueness up to gauge equivalence. These results differ from the properties of the determinant of the conformal Laplacian established in Chang and Yang (1995), Branson, Chang, and Yang (1992), and Gursky (1997). We also study entire solutions of the Euler-Lagrange equation of $logdetP$ and the half-torsion $a{u}_h$ on $mathbb{R}^{4}setminus0$, and show the existence of two families of periodic solutions. One of these families includes Delaunay-type solutions.

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Cited in

(7)

• Conformally variational Riemannian invariants
• Functional determinant on pseudo-Einstein 3-manifolds
• Solutions of Liouville equations with non-trivial profile in dimensions 2 and 4
• The Obata-Vétois argument and its applications
• A factorization of the GJMS operators of special Einstein products and applications
• Critical metrics for log-determinant functionals in conformal geometry
• Critical metrics for the determinant of the Laplacian in odd dimensions

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