Sharp Yamabe Bounds for Spherical Three-Space Forms via Four-Dimensional Poincar\'e--Einstein Compactness

Abstract

Let $\Gamma<SO(4)$ be a nontrivial finite group acting freely on $S^3$, and let $M=S^3/\Gamma$. We prove that every smooth conformal class $C$ on $M$ satisfies \[ Y(M,C)\le |\Gamma|^{-2/3}Y(S^3), \] with equality for the quotient-round conformal class. Consequently, \[ \sigma(M)=|\Gamma|^{-2/3}Y(S^3). \] Our approach uses four-dimensional Poincar\'e--Einstein fillings of the ball. We first establish compactness for fillings whose conformal infinities range over a compact family of positive-scalar-curvature metrics. Since compactness alone does not guarantee continuation through degenerate Einstein metrics, we use equivariant Fredholm parity to obtain a filling with the prescribed boundary conformal class and group action. A common interior fixed point then makes the Li--Qing--Shi boundary test function invariant, and its descent to $M$ gives the sharp covering factor.