On the prescribed negative Gauss curvature problem for graphs (Q6102547)

In this paper the problem of prescribing negative Gauss curvature for graphs embedded in \(\mathbb{R}^{n+1}\) is considered. If a graph is given by a function \(u\) defined in \(\mathbb{R}^n\), then the problem is equivalent to solving the following partial differential equation: \[ \frac{\det D^2u}{\left( 1+|Du|^2 \right)^{\frac{n+2}{2}}}=K, \tag{1} \] where the negative function \(K<0\) is the given Gauss curvature. The authors consider solutions with Hessian \(D^2u\) of Lorentzian signature \((-,+,\cdots,+)\). In this case, the above equation becomes a hyperbolic Monge-Ampère equation. When \(n\geq3\), the authors show that the linearization around a Lorentzian type solution can be written as a geometric wave equation for a suitable Lorentzian metric. Then, using energy estimates for the linearized equation and a version of the Nash-Moser iteration, they obtain the following local solvability: Theorem. Assume \(\Omega\subset\mathbb{R}^n\) is a compact lens-like shaped domain with boundary associated to a smooth space-like compact oriented hypersurface \(\Sigma_0\subset\mathbb{R}^n\) with boundary (see Section 3 for a detailed definition). Let \(u\) be a solution to Eq. (1). For all \(\eta\in C^{\infty}(\Omega)\) in a neighborhood of zero, there exists a solution \(u_{\eta}\in C^{\infty}(\Omega)\) satisfying \[ \frac{\det D^2u_{\eta}}{\left( 1+|Du_{\eta}|^2 \right)^{\frac{n+2}{2}}}=K+\eta, \] with \(u_\eta=u\) and \(Du_{\eta}=Du\) on \(\Sigma_0\). Moreover, \(u_{\eta}\) \(C^{\infty}\)-depends on \(\eta\). The authors further discuss some obstructions and perspectives on the global problem.