From Monge-Ampère equations to envelopes and geodesic rays in the zero temperature limit (Q2633070)

Let \(X\) be an \(n\)-dimensional compact complex manifold equipped with a smooth closed \((1,1)\)-form \(\theta\). The space \(PSH(X,\theta)\) of \(\theta\)-plurisubharmonic functions consists of all integrable strongly upper semicontinuous functions \(u\) on \(X\) such that \(\theta+dd^cu\ge 0\) in the sense of currents. When the class \([\theta]\) in \(H^{1,1}(X,\mathbb{R})\) is pseudo-effective (that is, it contains a positive current), we can define a \(\theta\)-plurisubharmonic function with minimal singularities as the following envelope: \(u_\theta(x)=\sup\{u(x)\mid u\le 0,\ u\in PSH(X,\theta)\}\). The envelope \(u_\theta\) is almost never of class \(C^2\); this paper introduces a natural family of smooth regularizations \(u_\beta\) of \(u_\theta\), where \(\beta>0\) is a parameter that can be interpreted as a sort of ``inverse temperature'', and thus the limit \(\beta\to+\infty\) can be thought of as a zero temperature limit in the sense of statistical mechanics. The regularizations \(u_\beta\) are obtained as smooth solutions of a complex Monge-Ampère equation of the form \((\theta+dd^cu_\beta)^n=e^{\beta u_\beta}\,dV\) for a suitable volume form \(dV\). The author shows that when \([\theta]\) is a Kähler class then as \(\beta\to+\infty\) the functions \(u_\beta\) converge to \(u_\theta\) in \(C^{1,\alpha}(X)\) for any \(\alpha\in(0,1)\), with a uniform bound on \(dd^cu_\beta\). The paper contains two proofs of this result. One proof uses a direct simple maximum principle argument. The second one is variational, and extends to the more general case of \([\theta]\) big. In this case, \(-\infty\)-singularities for all \(\theta\)-plurisubharmonic functions can appear; however, when \([\theta]\) is also nef the solutions to the complex Monge-Ampère equation above are smooth on the complement \(\Omega\) of a complex subvariety of \(X\) depending only on \([\theta]\). The author then shows that when \([\theta]\) is big then the functions \(u_\beta\) converge to \(u_\theta\) uniformly, and moreover when \([\theta]\) is nef the convergence holds in \(C^{1,\alpha}_{\mathrm{loc}}(\Omega)\). The paper then presents applications of these results to the regularization of plurisubharmonic functions and to the theory of weak geodesic rays and test configurations in Kähler geometry.