Green’s function, harmonic transplantation, and best Sobolev constant in spaces of constant curvature

Abstract

We extend the method of harmonic transplantation from Euclidean domains to spaces of constant positive or negative curvature. To this end the structure of the Green’s function of the corresponding Laplace-Beltrami operator is investigated. By means of isoperimetric inequalities we derive complementary estimates for its distribution function. We apply the method of harmonic transplantation to the question of whether the best Sobolev constant for the critical exponent is attained, i.e. whether there is an extremal function for the best Sobolev constant in spaces of constant curvature. A fairly complete answer is given, based on a concentration-compactness argument and a Pohozaev identity. The result depends on the curvature.