Orthogonal testing families and holomorphic extension from the sphere to the ball (Q2332875)

The main result of the paper is a theorem on the holomorphic extension of an analytic function \(f\) defined on the unit sphere in \(\mathbb{C}^2\) to the unit ball \(\mathbb{B}^2 \subset \mathbb{C}^2,\) provided that \(f\) extends holomorphically in each variable separately and along each complex line through a given point \(p \in \mathbb{C}^2 \setminus \overline{\mathbb{B}}^2\). If this is the case then \(f\) is the trace of a holomorphic function in the ball. There is a vast literature regarding the families of directions which suffice for holomorphic extendability from the sphere to the ball. It is known that extensions on vertical and horizontal slices or extensions on lines which meet at a single point do not suffice. With the present theorem the authors partially answer the question of \textit{J. Globevnik} [Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 364, No. 11, 5857--5880 (2012; Zbl 1275.32029)], whether families through three points outside the ball constitute the testing family for holomorphic extendability (they take two of the three points to be at infinity and generating the horizontal and vertical lines). The idea of the proof is to interpret the intersections of the complex lines with the ball as stationary discs. The lift of a stationary disc to the cotangent bundle is unique up to multiplication by a scalar function so it can be considered as a geometric object in the projective space \(\mathbb{P}T^*\mathbb{C}^2 \). The function \(f\) then lifts to a function \(F: \mathbb{P}T^*_{\partial{\mathbb{B}^2}}\mathbb{C}^2 \rightarrow \mathbb{C}.\) Since \(\mathbb{P}T^*_{\partial{\mathbb{B}^2}}\mathbb{C}^2\) is totally real in \(\mathbb{C}^2 \times \mathbb{P}^1_{\mathbb{C}}\), the map \(F\) extends holomorphically to its neighbourhood. By using holomorphic extendability in each variable and along intersections with lines through \(p,\) the authors show that \(F\) extends holomorphically to \(\mathbb{B}^2 \times \mathbb{P}^1_{\mathbb{C}}\) and hence is constant in the second variable, so it projects down to a holomorphic function in \(\mathbb{B}^2\) that extends \(f.\)