Abstract

We study the topology of the space of metrics of positive scalar curvature on a compact manifold. The main tool we use for constructing such metrics is the surgery technique of Gromov and Lawson. We extend this technique to construct families of positive scalar curvature cobordisms and concordances which are parametrised by Morse functions and later, by generalised Morse functions. We then use these results to study concordances of positive scalar curvature metrics on simply connected manifolds of dimension at least five. In particular, we describe a subspace of the space of positive scalar curvature concordances, parametrised by generalised Morse functions. We call such concordances Gromov-Lawson concordances. One of the main results is that positive scalar curvature metrics which are Gromov-Lawson concordant are in fact isotopic. This work relies heavily on contemporary Riemannian geometry as well as on differential topology, in particular pseudo-isotopy theory. We make substantial use of the work of Eliashberg and Mishachev on wrinkled maps and of results by Hatcher and Igusa on the space of generalised Morse functions.