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International audience; We give a simple characterization of the parabolic geodesics introduced by Cap, Slovak and Zadnik for all parabolic geometries. This goes through the definition of a natural connection on the space of Weyl structures. We then show that parabolic geodesics can be characterized as the following data: a curve on the manifold and a Weyl structure along the curve, so that the curve is a geodesic for its companion Weyl structure and the Weyl structure is parallel along the curve and in the direction of the tangent vector of the curve.

Unique continuation results are proved for metrics with prescribed Ricci curvature in the setting of bounded metrics on compact manifolds with boundary, and in the setting of complete, conformally compact metrics. Related to this issue, an isometry extension property is proved: continuous groups of isometries at conformal infinity extend into the bulk of any complete conformally compact Einstein metric. Relations of this property with the invariance of the Gauss-Codazzi constraint equations under deformations are also discussed., 32 pages, supercedes math.DG/0501067; final published version

We give a differential geometric description of the Cartan (or tractor) bundle and its canonical connection in CR geometry, thus offering a direct, alternative, definition to the usual abstract approach., minor changes ; wrong author in reference [7] corrected

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., revised version, added reference to previous paper by S. Zhu on the same subject

It was proved in 1957 by Huber that any complete surface with integrable Gauss curvature is conformally equivalent to a compact surface with a finite number of points removed. Counterexamples show that the curvature assumption must necessarily be strengthened in order to get an analogous conclusion in higher dimensions. We show in this paper that any non compact Riemannian manifold with finite $ L^{n/2} $ -norm of the Ricci curvature satisfies Huber-type conclusions if either it is a conformal domain with volume growth controlled from above in a compact Riemannian manifold or if it is conformally flat of dimension 4 and a natural Sobolev inequality together with a mild scalar curvature decay assumption hold. We also get partial results in other dimensions.

International audience

We study the Ricci curvature of a Riemannian metric as a differential operator acting on the space of metrics close (in a weighted functional spaces topology) to the standard metric of a rank-one noncompact symmetric space. We prove that any symmetric bilinear field close enough to the standard may be realized as the Ricci curvature of a unique close metric if its decay rate at infinity (its weight) belongs to some precisely known interval. We also study what happens if the decay rate is too small or too large.

International audience

Cauchy-Riemann geometry, CR for short, is the natural geometry of real pseudoconvex hypersurfaces of C^{n+1} for n≥1. We consider the generic case when CR manifolds are contact manifolds. CR geometry presents strong analogies with conformal geometry; hence, known invariants and techniques of conformal geometry can be transported to that context. We focus in this thesis on two such invariants. In a first part, using asymptotically complex hyperbolic geometry, we introduce a CR covariant differential operator on maps from a CR manifold to a Riemannian manifold, which coincides on functions with the CR Paneitz operator. In a second part, we propose a Yamabe invariant for contact manifolds which admit a CR structure, and we study its behaviour under connected sum.; La géométrie de Cauchy-Riemann, CR en abrégé, est la géométrie naturelle des hypersurfaces réelles pseudoconvexes de C^{n+1}, lorsque n≥1. Nous considérons le cas générique où les variétés CR considérées sont de contact. La géométrie CR présente de nombreuses similarités avec la géométrie conforme ; les invariants mis au jour et les techniques éprouvées en géométrie conforme peuvent donc être adaptées dans ce contexte. Nous nous intéressons dans cette thèse à deux invariants de ce type. Dans une première partie, en utilisant la géométrie asymptotiquement hyperbolique complexe, nous introduisons un opérateur différentiel CR covariant agissant sur les applications allant d'une variété CR vers une variété riemannienne, égal pour les fonctions à l'opérateur de Paneitz CR. Dans une seconde partie, nous proposons un invariant de Yamabe pour les variétés de contact admettant une structure CR, et nous étudions son comportement sous somme connexe.

Cauchy-Riemann geometry, CR for short, is the natural geometry of real pseudoconvex hypersurfaces of C^{n+1} for n≥1. We consider the generic case when CR manifolds are contact manifolds. CR geometry presents strong analogies with conformal geometry; hence, known invariants and techniques of conformal geometry can be transported to that context. We focus in this thesis on two such invariants. In a first part, using asymptotically complex hyperbolic geometry, we introduce a CR covariant differential operator on maps from a CR manifold to a Riemannian manifold, which coincides on functions with the CR Paneitz operator. In a second part, we propose a Yamabe invariant for contact manifolds which admit a CR structure, and we study its behaviour under connected sum.; La géométrie de Cauchy-Riemann, CR en abrégé, est la géométrie naturelle des hypersurfaces réelles pseudoconvexes de C^{n+1}, lorsque n≥1. Nous considérons le cas générique où les variétés CR considérées sont de contact. La géométrie CR présente de nombreuses similarités avec la géométrie conforme ; les invariants mis au jour et les techniques éprouvées en géométrie conforme peuvent donc être adaptées dans ce contexte. Nous nous intéressons dans cette thèse à deux invariants de ce type. Dans une première partie, en utilisant la géométrie asymptotiquement hyperbolique complexe, nous introduisons un opérateur différentiel CR covariant agissant sur les applications allant d'une variété CR vers une variété riemannienne, égal pour les fonctions à l'opérateur de Paneitz CR. Dans une seconde partie, nous proposons un invariant de Yamabe pour les variétés de contact admettant une structure CR, et nous étudions son comportement sous somme connexe.