Parabolicity of maximal surfaces in Lorentzian product spaces (Q627492): Difference between revisions

A maximal surface in a \(3\)-dimensional Lorentzian manifold is a space-like surface with zero mean curvature. By ``space-like'', we mean that the induced metric from the ambient Lorentzian metric is a Riemannian metric on the surface. Let us also recall that a Riemannian surface \((\Sigma,g)\) with non-empty boundary, \(\partial\Sigma\neq\emptyset\), is said to be parabolic if every bounded harmonic function on \(\Sigma\) is determined by its boundary values. Classically, a Riemannian surface without boundary is called parabolic if it does not admit a nonconstant negative subharmonic function. In this paper, the authors study some parabolicity criteria for maximal surfaces immersed into a Lorentzian product space of the form \(M^2\times{\mathbb R}\), where \(M^2\) is a connected Riemannian surface and \(M^2\times{\mathbb R}\) is endowed with the Lorentzian metric. Fernández and López have proved that properly immersed maximal surfaces with non-empty boundary in the Lorentz-Minkowski space-time \({\mathbb R}_1^3\) are parabolic if the Lorentzian norm on the maximal surface in \({\mathbb R}_1^3\) is positive and proper. In this context, the authors' generalization of the Lorentzian norm on a surface in \({\mathbb R}_1^3\) to the Lo\-rent\-zian product \(M^2\times{\mathbb R}\) consists in considering the function \(\phi=r^2-h^2\) where the function \(r\) measures the distance on the factor \(M\) to a fixed point \(x_0 \in M\) and \(h \in \mathcal{C}^\infty(\Sigma)\) is the height function of the surface \(\Sigma\). As the main result, the authors prove a theorem which asserts that, given a complete Riemannian surface \(M^2\) with non-negative Gaussian curvature, then every maximal surface in \(M^2\times{\mathbb R}\) with non-empty boundary and such that the function \(\phi:\Sigma\to{\mathbb R}\) is positive and proper is parabolic. In particular, and as an application of this result, the authors deduce that every maximal graph over a starlike domain \(\Omega\subseteq M\) is parabolic. This allows them to give an alternative proof of the non-parametric version of the Calabi-Bernstein result for entire maximal graphs in \(M^2\times\mathbb R\).