Proper holomorphic mappings of balanced domains in \(\mathbb C^n\) (Q2349894)

The authors extend a result about proper self-maps of the unit ball by H. Alexander to a class of balanced domains in \(\mathbb{C}^n\), \(n > 1.\) They prove that any proper holomorphic self-map \(F\) of a smoothly bounded balanced and (D'Angelo) finite-type domain \(\Omega \subset \mathbb{C}^n\), \(n > 1\), such that \(\Omega\) admits a smooth defining function that is plurisubharmonic in \(\Omega,\) is an automorphism. The main tools used in the proofs are the number \(\tau(p)\) (the order of vanishing in the tangential directions of the Levi determinant at the point \(p \in \partial\Omega\)) and the recent result of Opshtein on the behaviour of the iterates of holomorphic self-maps of a certain class of domains. The proof is by contradiction. If \(F\) were branched then under the hypotheses of the main theorem, for each point \(z\) in the branch locus \(V_F\) of \(F\), the set \((\mathbb{C} \cdot z) \cap \Omega\) would be contained in the irreducible component of \(V_F\) containing \(z.\) Then the authors show that \(F^{-1}(0) = \{ 0 \}\) and that \(F\) is recurrent and deduce that the limit manifold of \(F\) has dimension less than or equal to \(1.\) This contradicts Opshtein's theorem, which says that for recurrent maps \(F: \Omega \rightarrow \Omega\) the dimension of the limit manifold exceeds 1. As \(\Omega\) is simply connected the rest follows by monodromy.