Sign-changing blow-up for the Yamabe equation at the lowest energy level

Abstract

We investigate the blow-up behavior of sequences of sign-changing solutions for the Yamabe equation on a Riemannian manifold $(M,g)$ of positive Yamabe type. For each dimension $n\ge 11$, we describe the value of the minimal energy threshold at which blow-up occurs. In dimensions $11\le n\le 24$, where the set of positive solutions is known to be compact, we show that the set of sign-changing solutions is not compact and that blow-up already occurs at the lowest possible energy level. We prove this result by constructing a smooth, non-locally conformally flat metric on space forms ${\mathbb{S}}^n/\Gamma$, $\Gamma \ne \{1\}$, whose Yamabe equation admits a family of sign-changing blowing-up solutions. As a counterpart of this result, we also prove a sharp compactness result for sign-changing solutions at the lowest energy level, in small dimensions or under strong geometric assumptions.