The disc method (Q1127715)

The classical Hartogs-Bochner extension theorem states that holomorphic functions defined in a connected neighhorhood of the boundary of a bounded domain in \(\mathbb{C}^n\) extend holomorphically to the interior of the domain. This can be proved either by means of a suitable use of Bochner-Martinelli integral formulas or by solving \(\overline\partial\) with compact support. In this paper, the author constructs an example of a smoothly bounded domain in \(\mathbb{C}^2\) which cannot be filled by pushing discs -- in a suitable sense -- towards the interior. Thus the Hartogs-Bochner theorem cannot be proved by this method, well-known in the folklore of several complex variables.