Diederich-Fornæss and Steinness indices for abstract CR manifolds (Q2050630)

Pseudoconvex domains in complex manifolds are an important and well-studied class of domains in complex and geometric analysis. The Diederich-Fornaess index \(\eta(\Omega)\) is a numerical index on the strength of pseudoconvexity, more precisely that of hyperconvexity. It measures how well the pseudoconvex boundary of \(\Omega\) can be approximated by strictly pseudoconvex hypersurfaces from the inside of the domain. If \(\partial\Omega\) is strictly pseudoconvex, then \(\eta(\Omega)=1\), and Diederich and Fornaess showed that for any smoothly bounded pseudoconvex domain \(\Omega\), relatively compact in a Stein manifold, \(\eta(\Omega)\) must be positive. On the other hand, the Steinness index was introduced in [the second author, J. Geom. Anal. 29, No. 2, 1583--1607 (2019; Zbl 1437.32006)] as the counterpart of the Diederich-Fornaess index as a measure on the approximation by strictly pseudoconvex hypersurfaces from the outside of the domain. For a smoothly bounded pseudoconvex domain, it is a natural question whether the Diederich-Fornæss and Steinness indices of the domain are determined by the CR structure of the boundary. In the present article, the authors define the Diederich-Fornæss and Steinness indices for abstract compact CR manifolds of hypersurface type and give general relations among these indices (Theorem 1). In Theorem 2, the authors give sufficient conditions for these indices to agree for some class of typical pseudoconvex domains.