Asymptotic behavior of the Kobayashi metric in the normal direction (Q1006375)

Let \(D=\{ r<0\}\) denote a smooth bounded pseudoconvex domain in \(\mathbb C^n\) with a defining function \(r\). The following questions concerning the behavior of the Kobayashi pseudodifferential metric \(F_D\) of \(D\) found a large interest: (a) Does there exist a constant \(C>0\), such that \[ F_D(z;X) \geq C \frac{1}{|r(z)|} \bigg| \sum_{k=1}^n \frac{\partial r}{\partial z_k}(z)X_k \bigg| \] for \(z \in D, X=(X_1,\dots,X_n) \in \mathbb C^n\) ? (b) Does there exist a constant \(C>0\), such that \[ F_D(z; \nabla r(z)) \geq C \frac{1}{|r(z)|} \] for \(z \in D\) that lie sufficiently close to \(\partial D\) ? \textit{S. G. Krantz} had found a counterexample \(D\) in \(\mathbb C^2\) for (a) in: [Geometric analysis and function spaces. (1993; Zbl 0783.32001)]. In a joint work article with \textit{K. Diederich}, the reviewer had obtained in [Mich. Math. J. 47, No.~3, 515--528 (2000; Zbl 0989.32002)] a smooth bounded pseudoconvex example \(D \subset\mathbb C^2\), such that (a) does not hold for the Bergman differential metric (instead of \(F_D\)). But question (b) remained open. In the present note it is shown, that there exists a smooth bounded pseudoconvex domain \(D \subset \mathbb C^3\), for which the answer to (b) is also negative.