Rigidity for Bach-flat metrics on manifolds with boundary and applications

Abstract

In the article we consider Bach-flat metrics on four-manifolds with boundary, with conformally invariant boundary conditions. We show that such metrics arise naturally as critical points of the Weyl energy under a constraint. We then prove a rigidity result: if a Yamabe metric associated to a critical metric when restricted to the boundary is isometric to the round three-sphere, then the critical metric must be isometric to the standard upper hemisphere.