A Quartic Conformally Covariant Differential Operator for Arbitrary Pseudo-Riemannian Manifolds (Summary)

TL;DR

This paper introduces the Paneitz operator, a fourth-order conformally covariant differential operator on arbitrary pseudo-Riemannian manifolds, which is fundamental in conformal geometry in four dimensions.

Contribution

It presents the original formulation of the Paneitz operator, a novel conformally covariant differential operator crucial for conformal geometry in dimension 4.

Findings

Defines the Paneitz operator for arbitrary pseudo-Riemannian manifolds.

Highlights the operator's conformal covariance property.

Establishes the operator's significance in conformal differential geometry.

Abstract

This is the original manuscript dated March 9th 1983, typeset by the Editors for the Proceedings of the Midwest Geometry Conference 2007 held in memory of Thomas Branson. Stephen Paneitz passed away on September 1st 1983 while attending a conference in Clausthal and the manuscript was never published. For more than 20 years these few pages were circulated informally. In November 2004, as a service to the mathematical community, Tom Branson added a scan of the manuscript to his website. Here we make it available more formally. It is surely one of the most cited unpublished articles. The differential operator defined in this article plays a key role in conformal differential geometry in dimension 4 and is now known as the Paneitz operator.