Search arXivSearch

arXiv · 0803.4331

A Quartic Conformally Covariant Differential Operator for Arbitrary Pseudo-Riemannian Manifolds (Summary)

Abstract

This is the original manuscript dated March 9th 1983, typeset by the Editors for the Proceedings of the Midwest Geometry Conference 2007 held in memory of Thomas Branson. Stephen Paneitz passed away on September 1st 1983 while attending a conference in Clausthal and the manuscript was never published. For more than 20 years these few pages were circulated informally. In November 2004, as a service to the mathematical community, Tom Branson added a scan of the manuscript to his website. Here we make it available more formally. It is surely one of the most cited unpublished articles. The differential operator defined in this article plays a key role in conformal differential geometry in dimension 4 and is now known as the Paneitz operator.

Explore related subjects

Keep this discovery

Explore connections, maps & timelines

BibTeXRIS

Stephen M. Paneitz. 2008-03-30. A Quartic Conformally Covariant Differential Operator for Arbitrary Pseudo-Riemannian Manifolds (Summary). https://doi.org/10.3842/sigma.2008.036

Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.

KEEP EXPLORING

Related papers

Futaki invariant on Hopf manifolds

The Futaki invariant is a fundamental tool in Kähler geometry representing an obstruction to the existence of Kähler-Einstein metrics. Recently, it was generalized to compact complex manifolds. In this paper, we prove that it vanishes on Hopf manifolds.

math.DG

Remarks on potential functions of noncompact quasi-Einstein manifolds

In this article, we study the set of potential functions on noncompact quasi-Einstein manifolds. We show that the space of all positive potential functions on a three-dimensional noncompact quasi-Einstein manifold has dimension at most two, and that equality holds if and only if the manifold is isometric to a product $B\times\mathbb{R}$, where $B$ is a $λ$-Einstein surface or one of the examples obtained by L. Berard Bergery and described in Besse's book. Moreover, we prove that any asymptotically flat $n$-dimensional quasi-Einstein manifold with $λ=0$ is necessarily Ricci-flat.

math.DG

Adjusted connections on non-abelian bundle gerbes

Higher gauge theory for non-abelian structure 2-groups faces significant challenges when extending beyond the fake-flat sector, which suffers from limited applicability in physical models. A promising resolution involves equipping 2-groups with additional structure, known as adjustments. We present a comprehensive theory of adjusted connections on non-abelian bundle gerbes, classified by Saemann's adjusted version of non-abelian differential cohomology. This theory enables, in particular, a new coordinate-independent formulation of Tellez-Dominguez' lifting theorem, establishing a correspondence between adjusted connections on non-abelian bundle gerbes and connections on abelian bundle 2-gerbes.

math.DG