On properly essential classical conformal diffeomorphism groups

Abstract

We prove that various classical conformal diffeomorphism groups, which are known to be essential [1], are in fact properly essential. This is a consequence of a local criterion on a conformal diffeomorphism in the form of a cohomological equation. Furthermore, we study the orbit of a tensor field under the action of the conformal diffeomorphism group for these classical conformal structures. On every closed contact manifold, we find conformal contact forms that are not diffeomorphic.