The renormalized volume and uniformisation of conformal structures

TL;DR

This paper investigates the properties of the renormalized volume in asymptotically hyperbolic Einstein manifolds, linking it to conformal geometry, uniformization, and the structure of the space of conformal boundaries.

Contribution

It introduces a Polyakov type formula for the renormalized volume functional and characterizes its critical points, connecting to uniformization and the $\sigma_2$-Yamabe problem.

Findings

The renormalized volume functional admits a Polyakov type formula.

Critical points correspond to solutions of a nonlinear conformal equation.

The space of AHE ends forms a Lagrangian submanifold in the conformal structure space.

Abstract

We study the renormalized volume of asymptotically hyperbolic Einstein (AHE in short) manifolds $(M,g)$ when the conformal boundary $\pl M$ has dimension $n$ even. Its definition depends on the choice of metric $h_0$ on $\partial M$ in the conformal class at infinity determined by $g$, we denote it by ${\rm Vol}_R(M,g;h_0)$. We show that ${\rm Vol}_R(M,g;\cdot)$ is a functional admitting a "Polyakov type" formula in the conformal class $[h_0]$ and we describe the critical points as solutions of some non-linear equation $v_n(h_0)={\rm const}$, satisfied in particular by Einstein metrics. In dimension $n=2$, choosing extremizers in the conformal class amounts to uniformizing the surface, while in dimension $n=4$ this amounts to solving the $\sigma_2$-Yamabe problem. Next, we consider the variation of ${\rm Vol}_R(M,\cdot;\cdot)$ along a curve of AHE metrics $g^t$ with boundary metric $h_0^t$ and we use this to show that, provided conformal classes can be (locally) parametrized by metrics $h$ solving $v_n(h)=\int_{\pl M}v_n(h){\rm dvol}_{h}$, the set of ends of AHE manifolds (up to diffeomorphisms isotopic to Identity) can be viewed as a Lagrangian submanifold in the cotangent space to the space $\mc{T}(\pl M)$ of conformal structures on $\pl M$. We obtain as a consequence a higher-dimensional version of McMullen's quasifuchsian reciprocity. We finally show that conformal classes admitting negatively curved Einstein metrics are local minima for the renormalized volume for a warped product type filling.