p-Laplace equations in conformal geometry

Abstract

In this paper we introduce the p-Laplace equations for the intermediate Schouten curvature in conformal geometry. These p-Laplace equations provide more tools for the study of geometry and topology of manifolds. First, the positivity of the intermediate Schouten curvature yields the vanishing of Betti numbers on locally conformally flat manifolds as consequences of the Böchner formula as in the works of Nayatani and Guan-Lin-Wang. Secondly and more interestingly, when the intermediate Schouten curvature is nonnegative, these p-Laplace equations facilitate the geometric applications of p-superharmonic functions and the nonlinear potential theory. This leads to the estimates on Hausdorff dimension of singular sets and vanishing of homotopy groups that is inspired by and extends the work of Schoen-Yau. In the forthcoming paper we will present our results on the asymptotic behavior of p-superharmonic functions at singularities.