Let $M$ be a compact connected manifold of dimension $n$ endowed with a conformal class $C$ of Riemannian metrics of volume one. For any integer $k\geq0$, we consider the conformal invariant $λ_k ^c (C)$ defined as the supremum of the $k$-th eigenvalue $λ_k (g)$ of the Laplace-Beltrami operator $Δ_g$, where $g$ runs over $C$. First, we give a sharp universal lower bound for $λ_k ^c (C)$ extending to all $k$ a result obtained by Friedlander and Nadirashvili for $k=1$. Then, we show that the sequence $ \{λ_k ^c (C) \}$, that we call "conformal spectrum", is strictly increasing and satisfies, $\forall k\geq 0$, $λ_{k+1} ^c (C)^{n/2} - λ_k ^c (C)^{n/2} \geq n^{n/2} ω_n $, where $ω_n $ is the volume of the $n$-dimensional standard sphere. When $M$ is an orientable surface of genus $γ$, we also consider the supremum $λ_k ^{top} (γ)$ of $λ_k(g)$ over the set of all the area one Riemannian metrics on $M$, and study the behavior of $λ_k ^{top} (γ)$ in terms of $γ$.
In this paper, we introduce a new functional for the conformal spectrum of the conformal laplacian on a closed manifold M of dimension at least 3. For this new functional we provide a Korevaar type result. The main body of the paper deals with the case of the sphere but a section is devoted to more general closed manifolds.
Let $(M^n,g)$ be a closed Riemannian manifold of dimension $n\ge 3$. We study the variational properties of the $k$-th eigenvalue functional $\tilde g\in[g] \mapsto λ_k(L_{\tilde g})$ under a non-volume normalization proposed by Sire-Xu. We discuss necessary conditions for the existence of extremal eigenvalues under such normalization. Also, we discuss the general existence problem when $k=1$.
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 study the Laplacian flow of a $\mathrm{G}_2$-structure where this latter structure is claimed to be Locally Conformal Parallel. The first examples of long time solutions of this flow with the Locally Conformal Parallel condition are given. All of the solutions are ancient and Laplacian soliton of shrinking type. These examples are one-parameter families of Locally Conformal Parallel $\mathrm{G}_2$-structures on rank-one solvable extensions of six-dimensional nilpotent Lie groups. The found solutions are used to construct long time solutions to the Laplacian coflow starting from a Locally Co…
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 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.
Let M be a compact, connected, m-dimensional manifold without boundary and p>1. For 1<p\leq m, we prove that the first eigenvalue λ_{1,p} of the p-Laplacian is bounded on each conformal class of Riemannian metrics of volume one on M. For p>m, we show that any conformal class of Riemannian metrics on M contains metrics of volume one with λ_{1,p} arbitrarily large. As a consequence, we obtain that in two dimensions λ_{1,p} is uniformly bounded on the space of Riemannian metrics of volume one if 1<p\leq 2, respectively unbounded if p>2.
We introduce a differential topological invariant for compact differentiable manifolds by counting the small eigenvalues of the Conformal Laplace operator. This invariant vanishes if and only if the manifold has a metric of positive scalar curvature. We show that the invariant does not increase under surgery of codimension at least three and we give lower and upper bounds in terms of the $α$-genus.
We show that zero is not an eigenvalue of the conformal Laplacian for generic Riemannian metrics. We also discuss non-compactness for sequences of metrics with growing number of negative eigenvalues of the conformal Laplacian.
Let $(M^n,g)$ be an $n$-dimensional compact connected Riemannian manifold with boundary. In this article, we study the effects of the presence of a nontrivial conformal vector field on $(M^n,g)$. We used the wekk-known de-Rham Laplace operator and a nontrivial solution of the famous Fischer-Marsden differential equation to provide two characterizations of the hemisphere $\mathbb{S}^{n}_{+}(c)$ of constant curvature $c>0.$ As a consequence of the characterization using the Fischer-Marsden equation, we prove the cosmic no-hair conjecture under a given integral condition.
We prove that in many cases the existence of an extremal metric for some Laplace eigenvalue in a conformal class allows to find extremal metrics in conformal classes close by. As a consequence and as part of the arguments we obtain perturbed harmonic maps with constant density.
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.
The aim of this paper is to report on recent development on the conformal fractional Laplacian, both from the analytic and geometric points of view, but especially towards the PDE community.
In this short note, we prove that conformal classes which are small perturbations of a product conformal class on a product with a standard sphere admit a metric extremal for some Laplace eigenvalue. As part of the arguments we obtain perturbed harmonic maps with constant density.
As was shown recently by P. Nurowski, to any rank 2 maximally nonholonomic vector distribution on a 5-dimensional manifold M one can assign the canonical conformal structure of signature (3,2). His construction is based on the properties of the special 12-dimensional coframe bundle over M, which was distinguished by E. Cartan during his famous construction of the canonical coframe for this type of distributions on some 14-dimensional principal bundle over M. The natural question is how "to see" the Nurowski conformal structure of a (2,5)-distribution purely geometrically without the preliminar…
We obtain a structure theorem for the group of holomorphic automorphisms of a conformally Kähler, Einstein-Maxwell metric, extending the classical results of Matsushima, Licherowicz and Calabi in the Kähler-Einstein, cscK, and extremal Kähler cases. Combined with previous results of LeBrun, Apostolov-Maschler and Futaki-Ono, this completes the classification of the conformally Kähler, Einstein--Maxwell metrics on $\mathbb{CP}^1 \times \mathbb{CP}^1$. We also use our result in order to introduce a (relative) Mabuchi energy in the more general context of $(K, q, a)$-extremal Kähler metrics in a …
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 study the Euler-Lagrange equation for several natural functionals defined on a conformal class of almost Hermitian metrics, whose expression involves the Lee form $θ$ of the metric. We show that the Gauduchon metrics are the unique extremal metrics of the functional corresponding to the norm of the codifferential of the Lee form. We prove that on compact complex surfaces, in every conformal class there exists a unique metric, up to multiplication by a constant, which is extremal for the functional given by the $L^2$-norm of $dJθ$, where $J$ denotes the complex structure. These extremal metr…
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 the existence of a smooth family of non-compact domains $Omega_s \subset R^{n+1}$ bifurcating from the straight cylinder $B^n \times R$ for which the first eigenfunction of the Laplacian with 0 Dirichlet boundary condition also has constant Neumann data at the boundary. The domains $Omega_s$ are rotationally symmetric and periodic with respect to the R-axis of the cylinder; they are of the form $Omega_s = {(x,t) \in R^n \times R \mid |x| < 1+s \cos((2π)/T_s t) + O(s^2)}$ where $T_s = T_0 + O(s)$ and T_0 is a positive real number depending on n. For $n \ge 2$ these domains provide a sm…
The study of extremal properties of the spectrum often involves restricting the metrics under consideration. Motivated by the work of Abreu and Freitas in the case of the sphere $S^2$ endowed with $S^1$-invariant metrics, we consider the subsequence $λ_k^G$ of the spectrum of a Riemannian manifold $M$ which corresponds to metrics and functions invariant under the action of a compact Lie group $G$. If $G$ has dimension at least 1, we show that the functional $λ_k^G$ admits no extremal metric under volume-preserving $G$-invariant deformations. If, moreover, $M$ has dimension at least three, then…
Conformally Kähler, Einstein-Maxwell metrics and $f$-extremal metrics are generalization of canonical metrics in Kähler geometry. We introduce uniform K-stability for toric Kähler manifolds, and show that uniform K-stability is necessary condition for the existence of $f$-extremal metrics on toric manifolds. Furthermore, we show that uniform K-stability is equivalent to properness of relative K-energy.
A compact manifold is called Bieberbach if it carries a flat Riemannian metric. Bieberbach manifolds satisfy an isosystolic inequality by a general and fundamental result of M. Gromov. In dimension 3, there exist four classes of non-orientable Bieberbach manifolds up to an affine diffeomorphism. In this paper, We prove the existence on each diffeomorphism class of non-orientable Bieberbach 3-manifolds of a two-parameter family of singular Riemannian metrics that are systolically extremal in their conformal class. The proof uses a one-parameter family of singular Riemannian metrics on the Klein…
Let $(M^n,g)$ be a closed Riemannian manifold of dimension $n\ge 3$. Assume $[g]$ is a conformal class for which the Conformal Laplacian $L_g$ has at least two negative eigenvalues. We show the existence of a (generalized) metric that maximizes the second eigenvalue of $L_g$ over all conformal metrics (the first eigenvalue is maximized by the Yamabe metric). We also show that a maximal metric defines either a nodal solution of the Yamabe equation, or a harmonic map to a sphere. Moreover, we construct examples of each possibility.
In the present paper, we consider the Hodge-de Rham Laplacian that acts on conformal Killing and projective Killing one-forms of a compact Riemannian manifold.
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…
Based on the relations between scattering operators of asymptotically hyperbolic metrics and Dirichlet-to-Neumann operators of uniformly degenerate elliptic boundary value problems, we formulate fractional Yamabe problems that include the boundary Yamabe problem studied by Escobar. We observe an interesting Hopf type maximum principle together with interplays between analysis of weighted trace Sobolev inequalities and conformal structure of the underlying manifolds, which extend the phenomena displayed in the classic Yamabe problem and boundary Yamabe problem.
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…
We study an optimal control problem associated to the conformal Laplacian obstacle problem on closed n-dimensional Riemannian manifolds with n >2. When the Yamabe invariant of the Riemannian manifold is positive, we show that the optimal controls are equal to their associated optimal states and show the existence of a smooth optimal control which induces a conformal metric with constant scalar curvature. For the standard sphere, we prove that the standard bubbles -- namely conformal factor of metrics conformal to the standard one with constant positive scalar curvature -- are the only optimal …
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, …
Using the AdS/CFT correspondence, we identify the symmetry algebra of the Laplacian on Euclidean space as an explicit quotient of the universal enveloping algebra of the Lie algebra of conformal motions. We construct analogues of these symmetries on a general conformal manifold.
The aim of this paper is two-fold: first, we look at the fractional Laplacian and the conformal fractional Laplacian from the general framework of representation theory on symmetric spaces and, second, we construct new boundary operators with good conformal properties that generalize the fractional Laplacian using an extension problem in which the boundary is of codimension two.
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…
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…
We provide an explicit resolution of the existence problem for extremal Kaehler metrics on toric 4-orbifolds M with second Betti number b2(M)=2. More precisely we show that M admits such a metric if and only if its rational Delzant polytope (which is a labelled quadrilateral) is K-polystable in the relative, toric sense (as studied by S. Donaldson, E. Legendre, G. Szekelyhidi et al.). Furthermore, in this case, the extremal Kaehler metric is ambitoric, i.e., compatible with a conformally equivalent, oppositely oriented toric Kaehler metric, which turns out to be extremal as well. These results…
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 study a behavior of the conformal Laplacian operator $Ł_g$ on a manifold with \emph{tame conical singularities}: when each singularity is given as a cone over a product of the standard spheres. We study the spectral properties of the operator $Ł_g$ on such manifolds. We describe the asymptotic of a general solution of the equation $Ł_g u = Q u^α$ with $1\leq α\leq \frac{n+2}{n-2}$ near each singular point. In particular, we derive the asymptotic of the Yamabe metric near such singularity.
Let $(M,g)$ be a compact connected orientable Riemannian manifold of dimension $n\ge4$ and let $λ_{k,p} (g)$ be the $k$-th positive eigenvalue of the Laplacian $Δ_{g,p}=dd^*+d^*d$ acting on differential forms of degree $p$ on $M$. We prove that the metric $g$ can be conformally deformed to a metric $g'$, having the same volume as $g$, with arbitrarily large $λ_{1,p} (g')$ for all $p\in[2,n-2]$. Note that for the other values of $p$, that is $p=0, 1, n-1$ and $n$, one can deduce from the literature that, $\forall k >0$, the $k$-th eigenvalue $λ_{k,p}$ is uniformly bounded on any conformal class…
Let $g$ and $\tilde{g}$ be Riemannian metrics on a noncompact manifold $M$, which are conformally equivalent. We show that under a very mild \emph{first order} control on the conformal factor, the wave operators corresponding to the Hodge-Laplacians $Δ_g$ and $Δ_{\tilde{g}}$ acting on differential forms exist and are complete. We apply this result to Riemannian manifolds with a bounded geometry and more specifically, to warped product Riemannian manifolds with a bounded geometry. Finally, we combine our results with some explicit calculations by Antoci to determine the absolutely continuous sp…
Extremal length is a conformal invariant that transfers naturally to the discrete setting, giving square tilings as a natural combinatorial analog of conformal mappings. Recent work by S. Hersonsky has explored generalizing these ideas to three-dimensional cube tilings. The connections between discrete extremal length and cube tilings survive the dimension jump, but a condition called the triple intersection property is needed to generalize existence arguments. We show that this condition is too strong to realize a tiling, thus showing that discrete conformal mappings are far more limited in d…
We study eigenvalue problems for intrinsic sub-Laplacians on regular sub-Riemannian manifolds. We prove upper bounds for sub-Laplacian eigenvalues $λ_k$ of conformal sub-Riemannian metrics that are asymptotically sharp as $k\to +\infty$. For Sasakian manifolds with a lower Ricci curvature bound, and more generally, for contact metric manifolds conformal to such Sasakian manifolds, we obtain eigenvalue inequalities that can be viewed as versions of the classical results by Korevaar and Buser in Riemannian geometry.
Let $(M^4,g)$ be a closed Riemannian manifold of dimension four. We investigate the properties of metrics which are critical points of the eigenvalues of the Paneitz operator when considered as functionals on the space of Riemannian metrics with fixed volume. We prove that critical metrics of the aforementioned functional restricted to conformal classes are associated with a higher-order analog of harmonic maps (known as extrinsic conformal-harmonic maps) into round spheres. This extends to four-manifolds well-known results on closed surfaces relating metrics maximizing laplacian eigenvalues i…
