Monge-Ampère foliations with singularities at the boundary of strongly convex domains (Q2484085)

It is well-known that the unit disc \(D_1\subset\mathbb C\) carries the Poincaré metric, which is invariant under all its conformal automorphisms. Similarly, a strongly convex domain \(D\subset\mathbb C^N\) carries the Kobayashi metric with a similar property. By definition, this is the maximal metric on \(D\) such that any holomorphic mapping \(D_1\to D\) does not increase distances (where \(D_1\) is equipped with the Poincaré metric). It turns out that for any given \(z_0\in D\) and any other \(z\in D\) there exists a unique complex geodesic connecting them: a holomorphic mapping \(\phi:D_1\to D\) that yields an isometry between the two previous metrics, \(\phi(0)=z_0\), \(\phi(t)=z\) for some \(t\in D_1\). This was proved by \textit{L. Lempert} [Bull. Soc. Math. Fr. 109, 427--474 (1981; Zbl 0492.32025)]. It appears that the Kobayashi metric can be described by a partial differential equation of a Monge-Ampère type. This is a system of differential equations and inequalities on a function \(u:D\to\mathbb R\) that says exactly that \(u\) is plurisubharmonic; the differential form \(\partial\bar\partial u\) is degenerate; \(du\neq0\) on \(D\); \(u(z)=0\) for \(z\in\partial U\); \(u(z)-\log| | z_0-z| | =O(1)\), as \(z\to z_0\). In the above-cited paper Lempert had found a remarkable solution \(L\) to this equation with the following properties: (a) there is a foliation by holomorphic curves tangent to the kernels of the form \(\partial\bar\partial L\), and the leaves are the previous complex geodesics; (b) the levels of \(L\) bounded balls around \(z_0\) in the Kobayashi metric. Later \textit{M. Abate} [Math. Ann. 283, No. 4, 645--655 (1989; Zbl 0646.32014)] and \textit{C.-H. Chang, M. C. Hu} and \textit{H.-P. Lee} [Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 310, No. 1, 355--369 (1988; Zbl 0708.32006)] extended Lempert's result on existence and uniqueness of complex geodesics for the case, when \(z_0\) is a boundary point and \(z\in\overline D\). The paper under review studies the same case, when \(z_0\in\partial D\). The authors introduce and study a modified Monge-Ampère equation (with the logarithmic singularity condition replaced by ``simple pole'' condition). They give analogous interpretations of the complex geodesics and horospheres passing through \(z_0\) by constructing appropriate solutions \(L_{D,z_0}\) to the modified Monge-Ampère equation. (A horosphere is a limit of a boundary of a Kobayashi ball.) In particular, the horospheres are levels of the solution. It is known that a biholomorphism between two strongly convex domains is characterized by being an analytic extension of a biholomorphism of two given Kobayashi balls of the same radius [see \textit{J. Bland, T. Duchamp} and \textit{M. Kalka}, Contemp. Math. 49, 19--30 (1986; Zbl 0589.32050), \textit{K.-W. Leung, G. Patrizio} and \textit{P.-M. Wong}, Math. Z. 196, 343--354 (1987; Zbl 0645.32005)]. Theorem 1.1 of the paper under review provides a similar statement for the balls replaced by horospheres. Theorem 1.2 shows that the solution \(L_{D,z_0}\) of the modified Monge-Ampère equation is a conformal invariant of the domain in the following sense. Let \(F:D\to D'\) is a holomorphic mapping of strictly convex domains and continuous at a point \(p=z_0\in\partial D\), \(q=F(p)\in\partial D'\). Then \(F\) is a biholomorphism, if and only if the pull-back under \(F\) of the solution \(L_{D',q}\) in \(D'\) equals the solution \(L_{D,p}\) in \(D\) multiplied by a positive constant.