Nonlinear partial differential systems on Riemannian manifolds with their geometric applica\-tions. (Q1608526)

Let \(M\) be a Riemannian \(n\)-manifold, \(A\) be a smooth cross section in the bundle whose fiber at each \(x\in M\) is a nonnegative linear transformation on \(T_xM\) into itself, \(b\) be a smooth real-valued function, and \(\nabla v\) be the gradient of the function \(v\). In this paper the author is concerned with essential positive supersolutions of a second order differential equation \(Q(u)=0,\) that is \(C^2\) nonnegative functions \(v\) on \(M\) which are positive almost-everywhere on \(M\) and satisfy \(Q(v)\leq 0,\) where \[ Q(v)=\text{ div}\Bigl(A(x,v,\nabla v)\nabla v\Bigr) +b(x,v,\nabla v)v\leq 0. \] He makes a first, very interesting study of how the existence of essential positive supersolutions of the above nonlinear degenerate partial differential equation on \(M\) affects the topology, geometry and analysis on the manifold.