Uniqueness of hypersurfaces in weighted product spaces via maximum principles for the drift Laplacian (Q6134442)

Let the triple \(\displaystyle (\overline{M}^{n+1}, \overline{g}, d\mu=e^{-f}d\overline{M})=:\overline{M}^{n+1}_f\) be the weighted manifold with potential function \(f\) (i.e., a smooth function \(f: \overline{M}^{n+1}\to \mathbb{R})\), where \((\overline{M}^{n+1},g)\) is a Riemannian manifold and \(d\overline{M}\) is the standard volume element of \((\overline{M}^{n+1},g)\). A weighted Riemannian manifold \(\overline{M}^{n+1}_f\) is a gradient Ricci soliton if there exists a real constant \(\alpha\) such that the Bakry-Émery-Ricci tensor \(\overline{\mathrm{Ric}}_f\) satisfies \[\overline{\mathrm{Ric}}_f = \overline{\mathrm{Ric}} + {\text{Hess} f},\] where \(\overline{\mathrm{Ric}}\) is the standard Ricci tensor of \(\overline{M}^{n+1}\). Note that gradient Ricci solitons correspond to self-similar solutions of the Ricci flow and they usually arise as models for type I singularities of the flow. This paper extends the study initiated by the authors in [Adv. Geom. 17, No. 1, 53--59 (2017; Zbl 1386.53075)] obtaining several new uniqueness results related to complete two-sided hypersurfaces immersed with constant \(f\)-mean curvature \(H_f\) in a weighted product space \(\mathbb{R}\times M^n_f\), under suitable constraints on \(H_f\) and on the Bakry-Émery-Ricci tensor of the hypersurface. In particular, the authors prove that the slices are the only complete two-sided \(f\)-minimal (that is, with \(H_f\) identically zero) hypersurfaces lying in a half-space of \(\mathbb{R}\times M^n_f\) and such that the Bakry-Émeri-Ricci tensor is bounded from below. The approach applied is based on some maximum principles for the drift Laplacian of weighted Riemannian manifolds, which are derived from [\textit{Q. Chen} and \textit{H. Qiu}, Adv. Math. 294, 517--531 (2016; Zbl 1336.53074)]. Furthermore, the \(f\)-mean curvature equation related to entire graphs defined on the base \(M^n\) is studied.