Conformal metrics of prescribed scalar curvature on $4-$manifolds: The degree zero case

Abstract

In this paper, we consider the problem of existence and multiplicity of conformal metrics on a riemannian compact $4-$dimensional manifold $(M^4,g_0)$ with positive scalar curvature. We prove new exitence criterium which provides existence results for a dense subset of positive functions and generalizes Bahri-Coron and Chang-Gursky-Yang Euler-Hopf type criterium. Our argument gives estimates on the Morse index of the solutions and has the advantage to extend known existence results. Moreover it provides, for generic $K$ {\it Morse Inequalities at Infinity}, which give a lower bound on the number of metrics with prescribed scalar curvature in terms of the topological contribution of its "critical points at Infinity" to the difference of topology between the level sets of the associated Euler-Lagrange functional.