An interior estimate for convex solutions and a rigidity theorem (Q5965168)

Given a fully nonlinear PDE on all of Euclidean space, one can sometimes find very trivial solutions (like a linear one for instance). It is of interest to ask ``If a solution decays rapidly or is bounded or has a certain property, then is it necessarily the trivial solution?'' Theorems along these lines are called Bernstein-type results. One proves such results usually by proving interior estimates on the solution (typically \(C^2\) or \(C^1\) estimates). In this paper the Dirichlet problem for the \(k\)-Hessian equations is studied (with the forcing term allowed to depend on the gradient). Pogorelov-type interior estimates are proven (Theorem 1). Prior results are improved when additional (i.e., \(k+1\) convex) convexity assumptions are imposed (Theorem 2). Finally, a Bernstein-type result is proven (Theorem 4). The proofs rely on the maximum principle applied to a suitable, Gaussian-like function depending on the gradient of \(u\).