Isolated singularities for some types of curvature equations. (Q1426092)

The author considers the removability of isolated singularities of viscosity solutions of certain fully nonlinear curvature equations. Let \(\Omega\) be a bounded domain in \({\mathbb R}^{n}\) that contains \(\{0\},\) and consider equations of the form \[ H_{k }[u]=S_{k}(\kappa_{1}\kappa_{2}\ldots\kappa_{n})=0 \] in \(\Omega \backslash \{0\}\), where \(S_{k}(\kappa)\) is the \(k\)th elementary symmetric function of the principal curvatures. The author proves that for \(1 \leq k \leq n-1\), if \(u\) is a viscosity solution that extends continuously to \({\tilde u} \in C^{0}(\Omega)\), then \(\tilde u\) is a viscosity solution of \(H_{k}[\tilde u]=0\) in \(\Omega\). Comparison results play a large role in the proof. Using different techniques, the author proves a similar result for convex ''generalized solutions'' of curvature equations. The Gauss curvature equation, \(k=n\), is excluded in both cases, as simple examples can be found with non-removable singularities. The author concludes with a conjecture that isolated singularities should be removable without any assumptions on the behaviour of the solution near them. See also \textit{D. A. Labutin} [J. Differ. Equations 177, No. 1, 49--76 (2001; Zbl 0998.35017)].