The Gursky-Streets equations

DOI10.1007/S00208-020-02021-5MaRDI QIDQ832471zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors Weiyong He

Publication date 25 March 2022

Published in Mathematische Annalen (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/1707.04689

zbMATH Keywords

\(\sigma_2\)-Yamabe problemChang-Yang's \(\mathcal{F}\)-functionalgeodesicuniform \(C^{1,1}\) regularity

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Conformal structures on manifolds (53C18) Manifolds of metrics (especially Riemannian) (58D17)

Abstract: Gursky-Streets introduced a formal Riemannian metric on the space of conformal metrics in a fixed conformal class of a compact Riemannian four-manifold in the context of the $sigm{a}_2$-Yamabe problem. The geodesic equation of Gursky-Streets' metric is a fully nonlinear degenerate elliptic equation and Gursky-Streets have proved uniform $C^{0,1}$ regularity for a perturbed equation. Gursky-Streets apply the results and parabolic smoothing of Guan-Wang flow to show that the solution of $sigm{a}_2$-Yamabe problem is unique. A key ingredient is the convexity of Chang-Yang's $cF$-functional along the (smooth) geodesic, in view of Gursky-Streets metric and a weighted Poincare inequality of B. Andrews on manifolds with positive Ricci curvature. In this paper we establish uniform $C^{1,1}$ regularity of the Gursky-Streets' equation. As an application, we can establish strictly the geometric structure in terms of Gursky-Streets' metric, in particular the convexity of $cF$-functional along $C^{1,1}$ geodesic. This in particular gives a straightforward proof of the uniqueness of solutions of $sigm{a}_2$-Yamabe problem.

Review text

In [\textit{M. Gursky} and \textit{J. Streets}, Geom. Topol. 22, No. 6, 3501--3573 (2018; Zbl 1500.53042)] a formal Riemannian metric on the space of conformal metrics in a fixed conformal class of a compact Riemannian four-manifold was introduced in the context of the \(\sigma_2\)-Yamabe problem. Recall that the \(\sigma_2\)-Yamabe problem is asking for a metric \(g_u =e^{-2u}g\) in a fixed conformal class \([g]\), such that \[ \sigma_2 (g_u^{-1}A_u) \equiv \text{const}, \] where \(A\) is the Schouten tensor of a given metric and \(\sigma_2\) is defined to be the \(2\)-symmetric function of the eigenvalues of \(g^{-1}A\). Establishing some regularity results for the geodesic equation, it was then proved that the solution to the \(\sigma_2\)-Yamabe problem is unique (existence of such a solution was well known). In the paper under review, the author strengthens the regularity results mentioned. For this, several new tools, such as the concavity of the Gursky-Streets operator and a convexity result for certain matrices, are established. This leads to a significant simplification of the arguments used to establish uniqueness of the solution to the \(\sigma_2\)-Yamabe problem.

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(6)

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