English

Volume renormalization of higher-codimension singular Yamabe spaces

Differential Geometry 2025-08-26 v3

Abstract

Given an embedded closed submanifold Σn\Sigma^n in the closed Riemannian manifold Mn+kM^{n + k}, where k<n+2k < n + 2, we define extrinsic global conformal invariants of Σ\Sigma by renormalizing the volume associated to the unique singular Yamabe metric with singular set Σ\Sigma. In case nn is odd, the renormalized volume is an absolute conformal invariant, while if nn is even, there is a conformally invariant energy term given by the integral of a local Riemannian submanifold invariant. In particular, the renormalized volume gives a global conformal invariant of a knot embedding in the three-sphere. We compute the variations of these quantities with respect to variations of the submanifold. We extend the construction of energies for even nn to general codimension by considering formal solutions to the singular Yamabe problem; except that, for each fixed nn, there are finitely many kn+2k \geq n + 2, which we identify, for which the smoothness of the formal solution is obstructed and we obtain instead a pointwise conformal invariant. We compute the new quantities in several cases.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2408.01882,
  title  = {Volume renormalization of higher-codimension singular Yamabe spaces},
  author = {Sri Rama Chandra Kushtagi and Stephen E. McKeown},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2408.01882},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

51 pages; updated to include minor improvements

R2 v1 2026-06-28T18:03:15.261Z