We show that on conformal manifolds of even dimension $n\geq 4$ there is no conformally invariant natural differential operator between density bundles with leading part a power of the Laplacian $Δ^{k}$ for $k>n/2$. This shows that a large class of invariant operators on conformally flat manifolds do not generalise to arbitrarily curved manifolds and that the theorem of Graham, Jenne, Mason and Sparling, asserting the existence of curved version of $Δ^k$ for $1\le k\le n/2$, is sharp.
On locally conformally flat manifolds we describe a construction which maps generalised conformal Killing tensors to differential operators which may act on any conformally weighted tensor bundle; the operators in the range have the property that they are symmetries of any natural conformally invariant differential operator between such bundles. These are used to construct all symmetries of the conformally invariant powers of the Laplacian (often called the GJMS operators) on manifolds of dimension at least 3. In particular this yields all symmetries of the powers of the Laplacian $Δ^k$, $k\in…
We discuss a general scheme for a construction of linear conformally invariant differential operators from curved Casimir operators; we then explicitly carry this out for several examples. Apart from demonstrating the efficacy of the approach via curved Casimirs, this shows that this method applies both in regular and in singular infinitesimal character, and also that it can be used to construct standard as well as non--standard operators. The examples treated include conformally invariant operators with leading term, in one case, a square of the Laplacian, and in another case, a cube of the L…
A new derivation is given of Branson's factorization formula for the conformally invariant operator on the sphere whose principal part is the k-th power of the scalar Laplacian. The derivation deduces Branson's formula from knowledge of the corresponding conformally invariant operator on Euclidean space (the k-th power of the Euclidean Laplacian) via conjugation by the stereographic projection mapping.
We completely resolve the boundary value problem for differential forms and conformally Einstein infinity in terms of the dual Hahn polynomials. Consequently, we produce explicit formulas for the Branson-Gover operators on Einstein manifolds and prove their representation as a product of second order operators. This leads to an explicit description of $Q$-curvature and gauge companion operators on differential forms.
A new definition of canonical conformal differential operators $P_k$ ($k=1,2,...)$, with leading term a $k^{\rm th}$ power of the Laplacian, is given for conformally Einstein manifolds of any signature. These act between density bundles and, more generally, between weighted tractor bundles of any rank. By construction these factor into a power of a fundamental Laplacian associated to Einstein metrics. There are natural conformal Laplacian operators on density bundles due to Graham-Jenne-Mason-Sparling (GJMS). It is shown that on conformally Einstein manifolds these agree with the $P_k$ operato…
We consider open manifolds which are interiors of a compact manifold with boundary, and Riemannian metrics asymptotic to a conformally cylindrical metric near the boundary. We show that the essential spectrum of the Laplace operator on functions vanishes under the presence of a magnetic field which does not define an integral relative cohomology class. It follows that the essential spectrum is not stable by perturbation even by a compactly supported magnetic field. We also treat magnetic operators perturbed with electric fields. In the same context we describe the essential spectrum of the $k$…
We propose and discuss recursive formulas for conformally covariant powers $P_{2N}$ of the Laplacian (GJMS-operators). For locally conformally flat metrics, these describe the non-constant part of any GJMS-operator as the sum of a certain linear combination of compositions of lower order GJMS-operators (primary part) and a second-order operator which is defined by the Schouten tensor (secondary part). We complete the description of GJMS-operators by proposing and discussing recursive formulas for their constant terms, i.e., for Branson's $Q$-curvatures, along similar lines. We confirm the pict…
We develop a new approach, based on quantization methods, to study higher symmetries of invariant differential operators. We focus here on conformally invariant powers of the Laplacian over a conformally flat manifold and recover results of Eastwood, Leistner, Gover and Šilhan. In particular, conformally equivariant quantization establishes a correspondence between the algebra of Hamiltonian symmetries of the null geodesic flow and the algebra of higher symmetries of the conformal Laplacian. Combined with a symplectic reduction, this leads to a quantization of the minimal nilpotent coadjoint o…
In this note, we study the connection between the fractional Laplacian operator that appeared in the recent work of Caffarelli-Silvestre and a class of conformally covariant operators in conformal geometry.
Let (M,g) be a compact Riemannian manifold of dimension >2. We show that there is a metric h conformal to g and of volume 1 such that the first positive eigenvalue the conformal Laplacian with repect to h is arbitrarily large. A similar statement is proven for the first positive eigenvalue of the Dirac operator on a spin manifold of dimension >1.
CR invariant differential operators on densities with leading part a power of the sub-Laplacian are derived. One family of such operators is constructed from the ``conformally invariant powers of the Laplacian'' via the Fefferman metric; the powers which arise for these operators are bounded in terms of the dimension. A second family is derived from a CR tractor calculus which is developed here; this family includes operators for every positive power of the sub-Laplacian. This result together with work of Cap, Slovak and Soucek imply in three dimensions the existence of a curved analogue of ea…
In the study of conformal geometry, the method of elliptic partial differential equations is playing an increasingly significant role. Since the solution of the Yamabe problem, a family of conformally covariant operators (for definition, see section 2) generalizing the conformal Laplacian, and their associated conformal invariants have been introduced. The conformally covariant powers of the Laplacian form a family $P_{2k}$ with $k \in \mathbb N$ and $k \leq \frac{n}{2}$ if the dimension $n$ is even. Each $P_{2k}$ has leading order term $(- Δ)^k$ and is equal to $ (- Δ) ^k$ if the metric is fl…
We investigate the singular sets of solutions of conformally covariant elliptic operators of fractional order with the goal of developing generalizations of some well-known properties of solutions of the singular Yamabe problem.
We describe an elementary algorithm for expressing, as explicit formulae in tractor calculus, the conformally invariant GJMS operators due to C.R. Graham et alia. These differential operators have leading part a power of the Laplacian. Conformal tractor calculus is the natural induced bundle calculus associated to the conformal Cartan connection. Applications discussed include standard formulae for these operators in terms of the Levi-Civita connection and its curvature and a direct definition and formula for T. Branson's so-called Q-curvature (which integrates to a global conformal invariant)…
We look at several problems in even dimensional conformal geometry based around the de Rham complex. A leading and motivating problem is to find a conformally invariant replacement for the usual de Rham harmonics. An obviously related problem is to find, for each order of differential form bundle, a ``gauge'' operator which completes the exterior derivative to a system which is both elliptically coercive and conformally invariant. Treating these issues involves constructing a family of new operators which, on the one hand, generalise Branson's celebrated Q-curvature and, on the other hand, com…
Let (M,g) be an arbitrary pseudo-Riemannian manifold of dimension at least 3. We determine the form of all the conformal symmetries of the conformal (or Yamabe) Laplacian on (M,g), which are given by differential operators of second order. They are constructed from conformal Killing 2-tensors satisfying a natural and conformally invariant condition. As a consequence, we get also the classification of the second order symmetries of the conformal Laplacian. Our results generalize the ones of Eastwood and Carter, which hold on conformally flat and Einstein manifolds respectively. We illustrate ou…
In this paper, we classify n-dimensional (n>2) complete noncompact locally conformally flat gradient steady solitons. In particular, we prove that a complete noncompact non-flat conformally flat gradient steady Ricci soliton is, up to scaling, the Bryant soliton.
We construct continuously parametrised families of conformally invariant boundary operators on densities. These may also be viewed as conformally covariant boundary operators on functions and generalise to higher orders the first-order conformal Robin operator and an analogous third-order operator of Chang-Qing. Our families include operators of critical order on odd-dimensional boundaries. Combined with the (conformal Laplacian power) GJMS operators, a suitable selection of the boundary operators yields formally self-adjoint elliptic conformal boundary problems. Working on a conformal manifol…
Conformally equivariant quantization is a peculiar map between symbols of real weight $δ$ and differential operators acting on tensor densities, whose real weights are designed by $λ$ and $λ+δ$. The existence and uniqueness of such a map has been proved by Duval, Lecomte and Ovsienko for a generic weight $δ$. Later, Silhan has determined the critical values of $δ$ for which unique existence is lost, and conjectured that for those values of $δ$ existence is lost for a generic weight $λ$. We fully determine the cases of existence and uniqueness of the conformally equivariant quantization in term…
We consider a conformally invariant version of the Calderón problem, where the objective is to determine the conformal class of a Riemannian manifold with boundary from the Dirichlet-to-Neumann map for the conformal Laplacian. The main result states that a locally conformally real-analytic manifold in dimensions $\geq 3$ can be determined in this way, giving a positive answer to an earlier conjecture by Lassas and Uhlmann (2001). The proof proceeds as in the standard Calderón problem on a real-analytic Riemannian manifold, but new features appear due to the conformal structure. In particular, …
Let $M$ be a smooth manifold equipped with a conformal structure, $E[w]$ the space of densities with the the conformal weight $w$ and $D_{w,w+\de}$ the space of differential operators from $E[w]$ to $E[w+δ]$. Conformal quantization $Q$ is a right inverse of the principle symbol map on $D_{w,w+δ}$ such that $Q$ is conformally invariant and exists for all $w$. This is known to exists for generic values of $δ$. We give explicit formulae for $Q$ for all $δ$ out of the set of critical weights. We provide a simple description of this set and conjecture its minimality.
Over forty years ago, Paneitz, and independently Fradkin and Tseytlin, discovered a fourth-order conformally-invariant differential operator, intrinsically defined on a conformal manifold, mapping scalars to scalars. This operator is a special case of the so-termed extrinsic Paneitz operator defined in the case when the conformal manifold is itself a conformally embedded hypersurface. In particular, this encodes the obstruction to smoothly solving the five-dimensional scalar Laplace equation, and suitable higher dimensional analogs, on conformally compact structures with constant scalar curvat…
In this note, we investigate conformally flat submanifolds of Euclidean space with positive index of relative nullity. Let $M^n$ be a complete conformally flat manifold and let $f\colon M^n\to \R^m$ be an isometric immersion. We prove the following results: (1) If the index of relative nullity is at least two, then $M^n$ is flat and $f$ is a cylinder over a flat submanifold. (2) If the scalar curvature of $M^n$ is non-negative and the index of relative nullity is positive, then $f$ is a cylinder over a submanifold with constant non-negative sectional curvature. (3) If the scalar curvature of $…
In this largely expository note, we discuss the mapping properties of the Laplacian (and other geometric elliptic operators) in spaces with an isolated conical singularity following the approach developed by B.-W. Schulze and collaborators. Our presentation aims at illustrating the versatility of these results by describing how certain representative (and seemingly disparate) applications in Geometric Analysis follow from a common setup.
In the paper there are described new examples of conformally flat three dimensional almost cosymplectic manifolds. All these manifolds form a class which was completely characterized.
We show that an eternal solution to a complete, locally conformally flat Yamabe flow, $\frac{\partial}{\partial t} g = -Rg$, with uniformly bounded scalar curvature and positive Ricci curvature at $t = 0$, where the scalar curvature assumes its maximum is a gradient steady soliton. As an application of that, we study the blow up behavior of $g(t)$ at the maximal time of existence, $T < \infty$. We assume that $(M,g(\cdot, t))$ satisfies (i) the injectivity radius bound {\bf or} (ii) the Schouten tensor is positive at time $t = 0$ and the scalar curvature bounded at each time-slice. We show tha…
We give a complete classification of tangential bidifferential operators of total order at most $n$ which are expressed purely in terms of the Laplacian on the ambient space of an $n$-dimensional manifold. This gives a curved analogue of the classification, due to Ovsienko--Redou and Clerc, of conformally invariant bidifferential operators on the sphere. As an application, we construct a large class of formally self-adjoint conformally invariant differential operators.
We show that the conformally invariant fractional powers of the sub-Laplacian on the Heisenberg group are given in terms of the scattering operator for an extension problem to the Siegel upper halfspace. Remarkably, this extension problem is different from the one studied, among others, by Caffarelli and Silvestre.
The non-existence of non-trivial conformally symmetric manifolds in the three-dimensional Riemannian setting is shown. In Lorentzian signature, a complete local classification is obtained. Furthermore, the isometry classes are examined.
In this paper we prove that any complete locally conformally flat quasi-Einstein manifold of dimension $n\geq 3$ is locally a warped product with $(n-1)$-dimensional fibers of constant curvature. This result includes also the case of locally conformally flat gradient Ricci solitons.
In this paper we first use the result in $[12]$ to remove the assumption of the $L^2$ boundedness of Weyl curvature in the gap theorem in $[9]$ and then obtain a gap theorem for a class of conformally compact Einstein manifolds with very large renormalized volume. We also uses the blow-up method to derive curvature estimates for conformally compact Einstein manifolds with large renormalized volume. The second part of this paper is on conformally compact Einstein manifolds with conformal infinities of large Yamabe constants. Based on the idea in $[15]$ we manage to give the complete proof of th…
Conformally flat pseudo-Riemannian manifolds with generalized Ricci recurrent, $(GR)_n$ structure are completely classified in this short report. A conformally flat generalized Ricci recurrent pseudo-Riemannian manifold is shown to be either a de Sitter space or an anti-de Sitter space. In particular, a conformally flat generalized Ricci recurrent spacetime must be either a de Sitter spacetime or an anti-de Sitter spacetime.
Let G be a finite connected simple graph. We define the moduli space of conformal structures on G. We propose a definition of conformally covariant operators on graphs, motivated by [25]. We provide examples of conformally covariant operators, which include the edge Laplacian and the adjacency matrix on graphs. In the case where such an operator has a nontrivial kernel, we construct conformal invariants, providing discrete counterparts of several results in [11,12] established for Riemannian manifolds. In particular, we show that the nodal sets and nodal domains of null eigenvectors are confor…
In this article, we study harmonic symmetries on the compact locally conformally Kähler manifold $M$ of $dim_{\mathbb{C}}=n$. The space of harmonic symmetries is a subspace of harmonic differential forms which defined by the kernel of a certain Laplacian-type operator $\square$. We observe that the spaces $\ker(\square)\capΩ^{l}=\{0\}$ for any $|l-n|\geq2$ and $\kerΔ_{\bar{\partial}}\cap P^{k,n-1-k}\cap\ker(i_{θ^{\sharp}})\cong\ker(\square^{k,n-1-k})$, $\kerΔ_{\bar{\partial}}\cap P^{k,n-k}\cong\ker(\square^{k,n-k})$. Furthermore, suppose that $M$ is a Vaisman manifold, we prove that (i) $α$ is…
We construct a series of conformally invariant differential operators acting on weighted trace-free symmetric 2-tensors by a method similar to Graham-Jenne-Mason-Sparling's. For compact conformal manifolds of dimension even and greater than or equal to four with vanishing ambient obstruction tensor, one of these operators is used to describe the second variation of the total Q-curvature. An explicit formula for conformally Einstein manifolds is given in terms of the Lichnerowicz Laplacian of an Einstein representative metric.
There is a class of Laplacian like conformally invariant differential operators on differential forms $L^\ell_k$ which may be considered the generalisation to differential forms of the conformally invariant powers of the Laplacian known as the Paneitz and GJMS operators. On conformally Einstein manifolds we give explicit formulae for these as explicit factored polynomials in second order differential operators. In the case the manifold is not Ricci flat we use this to provide a direct sum decomposition of the null space of the $L^\ell_k$ in terms of the null spaces of mutually commuting second…
In this paper, we give a sharp spectral characterization of conformally compact Einstein manifolds with conformal infinity of positive Yamabe type in dimension $n+1>3$. More precisely, we prove that the largest real scattering pole of a conformally compact Einstein manifold $(X,g)$ is less than $\ndemi -1$ if and only if the conformal infinity of $(X,g)$ is of positive Yamabe type. If this positivity is satisfied, we also show that the Green function of the fractional conformal Laplacian $P(α)$ on the conformal infinity is non-negative for all $α\in [0, 2]$.
In this paper we prove that under a lower bound on the Ricci curvature and an asymptotic assumption on the scalar curvature, a complete conformally compact manifold $(M^{n+1},g)$, with a pole $p$ and with the conformal infinity in the conformal class of the round sphere, has to be the hyperbolic space.
We show that complete conformally flat manifolds of dimension n>2 with nonnegative Ricci curvature enjoy nice rigidity properties: they are either flat, or locally isometric to a product of a sphere and a line, or are globally conformally equivalent to flat space or to a spherical spaceform. This extends previous works by Q.-M. Cheng, M.H. Noronha, B.-L. Chen and X.-P. Zhu, and S. Zhu.
Let $(M,g)$ be a compact conformally flat manifold of dimension $n\geq4$ with positive scalar curvature. According to a positive mass theorem by Schoen and Yau, the constant term in the development of the Green function of the conformal Laplacian is positive if $(M,g)$ is not conformally equivalent to the sphere. On spin manifolds, there is an elementary proof of this fact by Ammann and Humbert, based on a proof of Witten. Using differential forms instead of spinors, we give an elementary proof on even dimensional manifolds, without any other topological assumption.
We prove the Hijazi inequality, an estimate for Dirac eigenvalues, for complete manifolds of finite volume. Under some additional assumptions on the dimension and the scalar curvature, this inequality is also valid for elements of the essential spectrum. This allows to prove the conformal version of the Hijazi inequality on conformally parabolic manifolds if the spin analog to the Yamabe invariant is positive.
Our principal goal is to study the Prescribed Curvature Tensor problem in locally conformally flat manifolds. The solution to this problem is given explicitly for the special cases of the tensor R, including a case where the metric g is complete on Rn. Similar problems are considered for locally conformally flat manifolds. As applications of these results we exhibit explicit examples of metrics g, conformal to g they are solutions for this problem.
The subject of this paper is the explicit momentum construction of complete Einstein metrics by ODE methods. Using the Calabi ansatz, further generalized by Hwang-Singer, we show that there are non-trivial complete conformally Kähler Einstein metrics on certain Hermitian holomorphic vector bundles and their subbundles over complete Kähler-Einstein manifolds. In special cases, we give the explicit expressions of of these metrics. These examples show that there is a compact Kähler manifold $M$ and its subvariety $N$ whose codimension is greater than 1 such that there is a complete conformally Kä…
We study the topology of a complete asymptotically hyperbolic Einstein manifold such that its conformal boundary has positive Yamabe invariant. We proved that all maps from such manifold into any nonpositively curved manifold are homotopically trivial. Our proof is based on a Bochner type argument on harmonic maps.
In this paper we give Hamilton's Laplacian estimates for the heat equation on complete noncompact manifolds with nonnegative Ricci curvature. As an application, combining Li-Yau's lower and upper bounds of the heat kernel, we give an estimate on Laplacian form of the heat kernel on complete manifolds with nonnegative Ricci curvature that is sharp in the order of time parameter for the heat kernel on the Euclidean space.
We show that Oeljeklaus-Toma manifolds $X(K, U)$ where $K$ is a number field of signature $(s, t)$ such that $s\geq 1,$ $t\geq 2$ and $s\geq 2t$ admit no lck metric. Combined with the earlier results by K. Oeljeklaus - M. Toma and A. Dubickas this completely solves the problem of existence of LCK metrics on Oeljeklaus-Toma manifolds.
This paper describes the connection between scattering matrices on conformally compact asymptotically Einstein manifolds and conformally invariant objects on their boundaries at infinity. The conformally invariant powers of the Laplacian arise as residues of the scattering matrix and Branson's Q-curvature in even dimensions as a limiting value. The integrated Q-curvature is shown to equal a multiple of the coefficient of the logarithmic term in the renormalized volume expansion.
Green functions play an important role in conformal geometry. In this paper, we explain how to compute explicitly the logarithmic singularities of the Green functions of the conformal powers of the Laplacian. These operators include the Yamabe and Paneitz operators, as well as the conformal fractional powers of the Laplacian arising from scattering theory for Poincaré-Einstein metrics. The results are formulated in terms of Weyl conformal invariants arising from the ambient metric of Fefferman-Graham. As applications we obtain "Green function" characterizations of locally conformally flat mani…
We prove global existence of instantaneously complete Yamabe flows on hyperbolic space of arbitrary dimension $m\geq3$ starting from any smooth, conformally hyperbolic initial metric. We do not require initial completeness or curvature bounds. With the same methods, we show rigidity of hyperbolic space under the Yamabe flow.
Eigenvalue comparison theorems for the Witten-Laplacian and the weighted $p$-Laplacian on complete manifolds with a modified Ricci curvature bounded from below
Faculty of Mathematics and Statistics, Key Laboratory of Applied Mathematics of Hubei Province, Hubei University（湖北大学数学与统计学学院，湖北省应用数学重点实验室）；Key Laboratory of Intelligent Sensing System and Security (Hubei University), Ministry of Education（教育部智能感知系统与安全重点实验室（湖北大学））
