Nonexistence of proper holomorphic maps between certain classical bounded symmetric domains (Q2257059)

The author proves that, for series of pairs \((\Omega, \Omega ')\) of irreducible bounded symmetric domains of type I, there does not exist any proper holomorphic map \(f:\Omega \to \Omega '\). More precisely the statement is as follows: Let \(D(p,q)\) be the symmetric domain of type I of \(p\) by \(q\) complex matrices \(Z\) such that \(I-\bar Z^t Z\) is positive definite. For integers \(k\geq 0\), \(\ell >0\), there is a positive integer \(N(k,\ell )\) such that, for any integer \(p\geq N(k,\ell )\), there does not exist any proper holomorphic map \(f:D(p+k+\ell ,p-\ell )\to D(p+k,p)\). The author raises the following questions: - Let \(\Omega \) and \(\Omega '\) be bounded symmetric domains such that \(\Omega \) is irreducible and of rank \(\geq 2\). Suppose there exists a proper holomorphic map \(f:\Omega \to \Omega '\). Does there always exist a totally holomorphic embedding \(h:\Omega \to \Omega '\) ? - Suppose there exists a proper holomorphic mapping \(f:\Omega \to \Omega '\) which is not totally geodesic. Is \(\Omega \) necessarily biholomorphically equivalent to a characteristic symmetric subspace of \(\Omega '\) ?