On the scalar curvature rigidity for mainifolds with non-positive Yamabe invariant

Abstract

In this paper, we study scalar curvature rigidity of non-smooth metrics on smooth manifolds with non-positive Yamabe invariant. We prove that if the scalar curvature is not less than the Yamabe invariant in distributional sense, then the manifold must be isometric to an Einstein manifold. This result extends Theorem 1.4 in Jiang, Sheng and the first author (Sci. China Math. 66 (2023) no. 6, 1141-1160), from a special case where the manifolds have zero Yamabe invariant to general cases where the manifolds have non-positive Yamabe invariant. This result depends highly on an analysis and estimates of geometric evolution equations.