A non-convergence phenomenon for the CR Yamabe flow

Abstract

We construct a contact form on a three dimensional CR manifold such that the CR Yamabe flow fails to converge. More precisely, on small Rossi deformations of the standard CR three-sphere, we exhibit an example whose corresponding CR Yamabe flow develops a one-bubble concentration regime. The construction is based on the negativity of the pseudohermitian mass on the Rossi spheres. This shows that mass positivity is not merely a technical assumption in the known convergence results for the CR Yamabe flow, but is genuinely connected to the large-time dynamics of the flow.