Fu-Yau Hessian equations (Q2039752)

Let \((X,\hat{\omega})\) be an \(n\)-dimensional compact Kähler manifold, \(\varrho\) a real \((1,1)\) form, \(\mu : X \to {\mathbb R}\) a smooth function with \(\int_X \mu\hat{\omega}^n = 0\), and \(\alpha' \in {\mathbb R}\). The authors consider for each \(1 \leq k \leq n-1\) and each \(\gamma > 0\) the nonlinear differential equation \[ i\partial\overline{\partial}\bigl\{e^{ku}\hat{\omega} - \alpha'e^{(k-\gamma)u}\varrho\bigr\}\wedge \hat{\omega}^{n-2} + \alpha'(i\partial\overline{\partial}u)^{k+1} \wedge \hat{\omega}^{n-k-1} + \mu\hat{\omega}^n = 0, \] where \(u\) is the unknown scalar function. They refer to this class of problems as Fu-Yau Hessian equations; the Fu-Yau equation corresponds to the choices \(k=1\) and \(\gamma=2\). The authors introduce a new method for analyzing the Fu-Yau equation and this generalized class of problems that relies on a new ellipticity condition that is more restrictive than the cone condition that is otherwise utilized for fully nonlinear second order partial differential equations. They prove refined a priori estimates, which they call estimates with scale, to show that this ellipticity condition is preserved by the continuity method. The main result of the paper is the following: Let \[ Y_k = \{u \in C^2(X,{\mathbb R}):\; e^{-\gamma u} < \delta,\; |\alpha'||e^{-u}i\partial\overline{\partial}u|^k_{\hat{\omega}} < \tau\}. \] There exist \(\delta > 0\) and \(\tau \ll 1\) and \(M_0 \gg1\) depending on the data such that for each \(M \geq M_0\) there exists a unique smooth function \(u \in Y_k\) with the normalization \(\int_Xe^u\hat{\omega}^n = M\) that solves the Fu-Yau Hessian equation.