The invariant pseudo-metric related to negative plurisubharmonic functions (Q1089139)

This paper is summarized as follows. First the author quotes Klimek's results on extremal plurisubharmonic functions [\textit{M. Klimek}, Bull. Soc. Math. Fr. 113, 231-240 (1985; Zbl 0584.32037)]. Let p be a point of a complex manifold M. Let \(PS^ M(p)\) denote the family of all [- \(\infty,0)\)-valued plurisubharmonic functions f on M such that the function \(f-\log \| z\|\) is bounded from above in a deleted neighbourhood of p for some holomorphic local coordinate z with \(z(p)=0\). The extremal function \(g^ M_ p\) is defined by \(g^ M_ p(q)= \sup \{f(q)| \quad f\in PS^ M(p)\}.\) Next, let \(X\in T_ p(M)\) be a tangent vector and c(t) be a local holomorphic curve in M with \(c(0)=p\) and \((dc/dt)(0)=X\). Set \[ P^ M(X)= \lim \quad \sup_{t\to 0,t\neq 0}(\exp g^ M_ p\circ c)(t)/| t|. \] Here the right hand side does not depend on the choice of c(t). We have a \([0,+\infty)\)-valued function \(P^ M\) on the holomorphic bundle T(M) of M. It satisfies \(P^ M(tX)=| t| P^ M(X)\) for \(X\in T(M)\) and \(t\in {\mathbb{C}}.\) The author's pseudo-metric \(P^ M\) is nothing but the infinitesimal version of Klimek's pseudo-distance. As a matter of fact, the author introced two intrinsic pseudo-metrics \(B^ M\) and \(P^ M\) in his previous paper, and being aware of Klimek's nice work afterwards, he published a simplified definition of \(P^ M\) in this paper. Since Klimek's extremal function satisfies the homogeneous Monge-Ampère equation \((dd^ cg)^ m=0\) and his function coincides with the Green function in 1-dimensional cases, we can give the concrete expression of \(P^ M\) in some 1-dimensional cases. In the latter half of this paper the case of the annulus is discussed. Now, in order to understand the background of this paper, I would like to point out two facts. The first is that there exist several papers defining intrinsic pseudo-distances and pseudo-metrics on complex manifolds: Carathéodory, Bergman, Kobayashi, Chern-Levine-Nirenberg, Klimek, Sibony and the author. The second is the following opinion of \textit{S. Kobayashi} [Bull. Am. Math. Soc. 82, 357-416 (1976; Zbl 0346.32031), pp. 359]: ''There are a number of general results on the pseudo-distance \(d_ x\) and the pseudo-volume form \(\Psi_ x\). But deeper and more interesting problems seem to be those of determining or, at least, estimating \(d_ x\) and \(\Psi_ x\) for individual X.''