The Webster scalar curvature flow on CR sphere. Part I

This is the first of two papers, in which we prove some properties of the Webster scalar curvature flow. More precisely, we establish the long-time existence, L^p convergence and the blow-up analysis for the solution of the flow. As a by-product, we prove the convergence of the CR Yamabe flow on the CR sphere. The results in this paper will be used to prove a result of prescribing Webster scalar curvature on the CR sphere, which is the main result of the second paper.