A variational approach to complex Monge-Ampère equations (Q351678)

The authors employ the variational method to prove the existence of weak solutions of the complex Monge-Ampère equation on a compact Kähler manifold \( (X, \omega)\). It paralleles Aleksandrov's approach in the real case and relies on the study of the Aubin-Mabuchi energy functional \[ E(u) = \frac{1}{n+1}\sum _k \int _M u (\omega +dd^c u)^k \wedge \omega ^{n-k} . \] The Euler-Lagrange equation for a maximizer \(u\) of the functional \(F_{\mu } (u) = E(u)-\int u\, d\mu \) is exactly \((\omega +dd^c u)^n =d\mu \). Then solving the Monge-Ampère equation boils down to proving the existence of such maximizers. A probability measure \(\mu\) is said to be of finite energy if \(E^{\ast } (\mu ) <\infty \) for a suitably defined Legendre transform of \(E\). It is shown that \(\mu\) has this property iff there exists a closed positive \((1,1)\) current \(T_{\mu }\) which solves the Monge-Ampère equation \[ T_{\mu }^n = \mu . \] The current \(T_{\mu }\) is the unique maximizer of \(F_{\mu }\) (treated as a functional on the set of closed positive \((1,1)\) currents via the identification \(u\to \omega +dd^c u\)) and the limit of any maximizing sequence. This is a method of finding weak solutions of the Monge-Ampère equation without referring to the Calabi-Yau theorem. It also works in big cohomology classes and gives an alternative proof of the main result in the paper by \textit{S. Boucksom} et al. [Acta Math. 205, No. 2, 199--262 (2010; Zbl 1213.32025)]. In a similar way the singular Kähler-Einstein metrics are shown to be the maximizers of a siutable functional on manifolds of general type. The authors give also the variational characterization of Kähler-Einstein currents on Fano manifolds, extending the results of Ding and Tian and the uniqueness theorem of Bando and Mabuchi. Finally, a theorem of Donaldson on the existence of balanced metrics is generalized. Namely, if \(T_{\mu }\) is the solution of \( T_{\mu }^n = \mu \) belonging to the first Chern class of an ample line bundle \(L\), then one can find \(\mu\)-balanced metrics \(\phi _k\) on \(kL\) (for \(k\) large enough) such that the curvature forms \(\frac{1}{k} dd^c \phi _k \) converge to \(T_{\mu }\) as currents.