On a Riemannian manifold, one can define the conformal Laplacian as an operator on smooth functions; it differs from the Laplace–Beltrami operator by a term involving the scalar curvature of the underlying metric. In dimension n ≥ 3, the conformal Laplacian, denoted L, acts on a smooth function u by
where Δ is the Laplace-Beltrami operator (of negative spectrum), and R is the scalar curvature. This operator often makes an appearance when studying how the scalar curvature behaves under a conformal change of a Riemannian metric. If n ≥ 3 and g is a metric and u is a smooth, positive function, then the conformal metric
has scalar curvature given by
Read more about this topic: Laplace Operators In Differential Geometry