Entire solutions of the minimal surface equation (Q1263086)

A number of new results concerning the asymptotic behaviour of exterior and entire solutions to the minimal surface equation in \({\mathbb{R}}^ n\) are presented. Additionally some new examples of nonlinear entire solutions are given. Restricting à priori the ``tangent cylinder at infinity'' (a concept discussed at length in the paper), quite precise upper and lower bounds on the rate of growth are obtained; let u be an exterior solution to the minimal surface equation i.e. \(C^ 2\) outside a bounded open subset of \({\mathbb{R}}^ n\), then for each \(a>0\), there exist constants \(c=c(a,u)\) and \(R_ 0=R_ 0(a,u)\) such that \[ | Du(x)| \leq c | x|^{b+a},\quad | u(x)| \leq c | x|^{b+1+a},\quad for\quad all\quad | x| >R_ 0, \] and there is a sequence \(x_ j\), \(| x_ j| \to \infty\) with \(| Du(x_ j)| \geq c^{-1}| x_ j|^{b-a},\quad | u(x_ j)| \geq c^{-1}| x_ j|^{b+1-a},\) for all \(j=1,2,... \). Here b is a constant (depending on dimension and a certain minimum eigenvalue of a geometric operator).