Let $X$ be an abstract not necessarily compact orientable CR manifold of dimension $2n-1$, $n\geqslant2$. Let $\Box^{(q)}_{b}$ be the Gaffney extension of Kohn Laplacian for $(0,q)$--forms. We show that the spectral function of $\Box^{(q)}_b$ admits a full asymptotic expansion on the non-degenerate part of the Levi form. As a corollary, we deduce that if $X$ is compact and the Levi form is non-degenerate of constant signature on $X$, then the spectrum of $\Box^{(q)}_b$ in $]0,\infty[$ consists of point eigenvalues of finite multiplicity. Moreover, we show that a certain microlocal conjugation of the associated Szeg\H{o} kernel admits an asymptotic expansion under a local closed range condition. As applications, we establish the Szeg\H{o} kernel asymptotic expansions on some weakly pseudoconvex CR manifolds and on CR manifolds with transversal CR $S^1$ actions. By using these asymptotics, we establish some local embedding theorems on CR manifolds and we give an analytic proof of a theorem of Lempert asserting that a compact strictly pseudoconvex CR manifold of dimension three with a transversal CR $S^1$ action can be CR embedded into $\Complex^N$, for some $N\in\mathbb N$.

Let $(\hat X,T^{1,0}\hat X)$ be a compact orientable CR embeddable three dimensional strongly pseudoconvex CR manifold, where $T^{1,0}\hat X$ is a CR structure on $\hat X$. Fix a point $p\in\hat X$ and take a global contact form $\hat\theta$ so that $\hat\theta$ is asymptotically flat near $p$. Then $(\hat X,T^{1,0}\hat X,\hat\theta )$ is a pseudohermitian $3$-manifold. Let $G_p\in C^\infty(\hat X\setminus\set{p})$, $G_p > 0$, with $G_p(x)\sim\vartheta(x,p)^{-2}$ near $p$, where $\vartheta(x,y)$ denotes the natural pseudohermitian distance on $\hat X$. Consider the new pseudohermitian $3$-manifold with a blow-up of contact form $(\hat X\setminus\set{p},T^{1,0}\hat X,G^2_p\hat\theta)$ and let $\Box_{b}$ denote the corresponding Kohn Laplacian on $\hat X\setminus\set{p}$. In this paper, we prove that the weighted Kohn Laplacian $G^2_p\Box_b$ has closed range in $L^2$ with respect to the weighted volume form $G^2_p\hat\theta\wedge d\hat\theta$, and that the associated partial inverse and the Szeg\"{o} projection enjoy some regularity properties near $p$. As an application, we prove the existence of some special functions in the kernel of $\Box_{b}$ that grow at a specific rate at $p$. The existence of such functions provides an important ingredient for the proof of a positive mass theorem in 3-dimensional CR geometry by Cheng-Malchiodi-Yang \cite{CMY}.

Let $X$ be an abstract not necessarily compact orientable CR manifold of dimension $2n-1$, $n\geqslant2$. Let $\Box^{(q)}_{b}$ be the Gaffney extension of Kohn Laplacian for $(0,q)$--forms. We show that the spectral function of $\Box^{(q)}_b$ admits a full asymptotic expansion on the non-degenerate part of the Levi form. As a corollary, we deduce that if $X$ is compact and the Levi form is non-degenerate of constant signature on $X$, then the spectrum of $\Box^{(q)}_b$ in $]0,\infty[$ consists of point eigenvalues of finite multiplicity. Moreover, we show that a certain microlocal conjugation of the associated Szeg\H{o} kernel admits an asymptotic expansion under a local closed range condition. As applications, we establish the Szeg\H{o} kernel asymptotic expansions on some weakly pseudoconvex CR manifolds and on CR manifolds with transversal CR $S^1$ actions. By using these asymptotics, we establish some local embedding theorems on CR manifolds and we give an analytic proof of a theorem of Lempert asserting that a compact strictly pseudoconvex CR manifold of dimension three with a transversal CR $S^1$ action can be CR embedded into $\mathbb C^N$, for some $N\in\mathbb N$.

Let X1 and X2 be two compact connected strongly pseudoconvex embeddable Cauchy-Riemann (CR) manifolds of dimensions 2m − 1 and 2n − 1 in Cm+1 and Cn+1, respectively. We introduce the Thom- Sebastiani sum X = X1⊕X2 which is a new compact connected strongly pseudoconvex embeddable CR manifold of dimension 2m+2n+1 in Cm+n+2. Thus the set of all codimension 3 strongly pseudoconvex compact connected CR manifolds in Cn+1 for all n > 2 forms a semigroup. X is said to be an irreducible element in this semigroup if X cannot be written in the form X1 ⊕X2. It is a natural question to determine when X is an irreducible CR manifold. We use Kohn-Rossi cohomology groups to give a necessary condition of the above question. Explicitly, we show that if X = X1 ⊕ X2, then the Kohn-Rossi cohomology of the X is the product of those Kohn-Rossi cohomology coming from X1 and X2 provided that X2 admits a transversal holomorphic S1-action.

We extend a recent result of Avelin, Hed, and Persson about approximation of functions f that are plurisubharmonic on a domain Ω and continuous on ˙Ω, with functions that are plurisubharmonic on (shrinking) neighborhoods of ˙Ω. We show that such approximation is possible if the boundary of Ω is C0 outside a countable exceptional set E⊂∂Ω. In particular, approximation is possible on the Hartogs triangle. For Hölder continuous u, approximation is possible under less restrictive conditions on E. We next give examples of domains where this kind of approximation is not possible, even when approximation in the Hölder continuous case is possible.