The weak solutions to complex Hessian equations (Q6153457)

The complex Hessian equation is considered to be an important class of fully nonlinear elliptic equations, which arises naturally from geometric problems and from mathematical physics. For instance, on Kähler manifolds, the Fu-Yau equation related to a Strominger system for dimensions higher than two becomes the Hessian equation with an extra term involving the gradient of the solution [\textit{J.-X. Fu} and \textit{S.-T. Yau}, J. Differ. Geom. 78, No. 3, 369--428 (2008; Zbl 1141.53036)]. Another form of the Hessian equation is shown to be equivalent to the quaternionic Monge-Ampère equation on HKT manifolds in [\textit{S. Alesker} and \textit{M. Verbitsky}, Isr. J. Math. 176, 109--138 (2010; Zbl 1193.53118)]. The most famous one included in this class of complex elliptic equations must be the following complex Monge-Ampère equation: \[ (\omega+\sqrt{-1}\partial\bar{\partial}\varphi)^n=e^f\omega^n,\quad\sup_M\varphi=0. \tag{1} \] \textit{S.-T. Yau} solved the complex Monge-Ampère equation (1) on compact Kähler manifolds, which is known as Calabi-Yau theorem [Commun. Pure Appl. Math. 31, 339--411 (1978; Zbl 0369.53059)]. It is known that the Kähler condition can be dropped and we can consider just Hermitian manifolds. Equation (1) on compact Hermitian manifolds was solved by \textit{S. Kołodziej} and \textit{N. N. Cuong} [Contemp. Math. 644, 141--158 (2015; Zbl 1343.32031)] for the non-negative right-hand side in \(L^p\), \(p>1\). The approach of Kołodziej and Cuong [loc. cit.] relies on a pluripotential theory for degenerate complex Hessian equations. A key step in the study of complex elliptic equations on compact complex manifolds without boundary is to obtain the \(L^\infty\)-estimate. The \(L^\infty\)-estimate for Monge-Ampère equations was derived by Yau [loc. cit.] by applying the Moser iteration method. \textit{S. Kołodziej} [Acta Math. 180, No. 1, 69--117 (1998; Zbl 0913.35043)] made use of the pluripotential theory to show the \(L^\infty\)-estimate for the right-hand side in \(L^p\), \(p>1\). \textit{Z. Blocki} [Sci. China, Math. 54, No. 7, 1375--1377 (2011; Zbl 1239.32032)] adopted the ABP (Aleksandrov-Bakelman-Pucci) maximum principle in order to derive the \(L^\infty\)-estimate with the right-hand side in \(L^p\), \(p>2\). The present paper considers the complex Hessian equation on a compact Hermitian manifold \((M,\omega)\) without boundary of complex dimension \(n\ge2\): \[ (\chi+\sqrt{-1}\partial\bar{\partial}\varphi)^m\wedge\omega^{n-m}=e^{mf}\omega^n,\quad\sup_M\varphi=0, \tag{2} \] where \(2\le m\le n\) and \(\chi\in\bar{\Gamma}_\omega^m\). The author adapts the argument in Guo-Phong to prove the \(L^\infty\)-estimate and imposes the structure condition that there is a smooth function \(f\) on \(M\) satisfying that \[ \hat{\chi}^n(z)\le e^{nf(z)}\omega^n(z) \tag{3} \] if at \(z\in M\) the real \((1,1)\)-form \(\hat{\chi}(z)\ge0\) satisfies \[F(\chi(z)+\hat{\chi}(z))\le\psi(z),\] where \[ F(\chi+\delta\omega+\sqrt{-1}\partial\bar{\partial}\varphi):=\mathcal{F}(\lambda(\chi+\delta\omega+\sqrt{-1}\partial\bar{\partial}\varphi))=\psi,\quad\sup_M\varphi=0, \tag{4} \] \(\lambda(\chi)\) is the eigenvalue set of \(\chi\) with respect to \(\omega\), \(\mathcal{F}\) is a smooth function defined on a symmetric convex cone \(\Gamma\subset\mathbb{R}^n\) with \(\Gamma^n\subset\Gamma\subset\Gamma^1\), and \(F\) is assumed to be elliptic. Note that the structure condition is a direct extension of the notion of \(\mathcal{C}\)-subsolutions. If the structure condition (3) holds, and supposing that \(\int_Me^{nf}(1+n|f|)^p\) is bounded for \(p>n\), then the author shows that there is a constant \(C\) such that \(-\varphi<C\) for \(C^2\)-smooth solution \(\varphi\) to Eq. (4). The author also investigates the stability estimate of the following equation: \[ F(\chi+\delta\omega+\sqrt{-1}\partial\bar{\partial}\varphi)=e^f,\quad\sup_M\varphi=0. \tag{5} \] Of particular importance in the present paper is to obtain weak solutions in two different senses: viscous sense and pluripotential sense. First, the author constructs the weak solutions in viscous sense. He begins by establishing a compact embedding result saying that the set of \(L^\infty\)-bounded \(C^2\)-smooth solutions is precompact in the \(L^{q'}\)-norm for any \(1\le q'<+\infty\). Having this embedding result, there is a standard procedure to construct viscosity solutions by assuming that \(F\) is concave and satisfies that there is a constant \(c_1>0\) so that the inequality \[ F(\chi+\hat{\chi})\ge F(\hat{\chi})\ge c_1\Big(\frac{\hat{\chi}^n}{\omega^n}\Big)^{\frac{1}{n}}\tag{6} \] is satisfied whenever \(\hat{\chi}\ge0\) holds and \(e^f\in C(M)\) satisfies that there is a sequence \(\{e^{f_i}\}\subset C(M)\) uniformly convergent to \(e^f\) so that for each \(i\), there is a \(C^2\)-classical solution \(\varphi_i\) solving \[F(\chi+\delta\omega+\sqrt{-1}\partial\bar{\partial}\varphi_i)=e^{f_i},\quad\sup_M\varphi_i=0.\] Then, the author proves that there exists a viscosity solution to Eq. (5) on a compact Hermitian manifold \((M,\omega)\) and obtains the result on viscosity solutions by a PDE method in Theorem 1.2 that whenever \(e^f\in C(M)\) satisfies that \(\|e^f\|_{L^\infty}>0\), then the complex Hessian equation \[ (\chi+\delta\omega+\sqrt{-1}\partial\bar{\partial}\varphi)^m\wedge\omega^{n-m}=e^{mb}e^{mf}\omega^n,\quad\sup_M\varphi=0\tag{7} \] admits a viscosity solution pair \((\varphi,b)\). Another type of weak solutions are pluripotential solutions. The author works on the degenerate case and constructs the weak solutions in the pluripotential sense on Kähler manifolds. By applying the \(L^\infty\)-estimate, the author improves the exponent in the strong stability estimate, which gives continuous pluripotential solutions to complex Hessian equations on a compact Kähler manifold without boundary when the right-sided terms belong to \(L^q\), \(q>\frac{n}{m}\). The author shows that the constructed solutions are equicontinuous. Let \(\chi\in\bar{\Gamma}_\omega^m\) be a closed real \((1,1)\)-form, and let \(\tilde{\chi}\) be a semipositive and big closed real \((1,1)\)-form on a compact Kähler manifold \((M,\omega)\). For \(0<t\le1\), the author considers a class of approximation equations of Eq. (2): \[ (\chi+\tilde{\chi}+t\omega+\sqrt{-1}\partial\bar{\partial}\varphi_t)^m=e^{mb_t}e^{mf}\omega^n,\quad\sup_M\varphi_t=0, \tag{8} \] where \[\int_M(\chi+\tilde{\chi}+t\omega)^m\wedge\omega^{n-m}=e^{mb_t}\int_M(\chi+\tilde{\chi})^m\wedge\omega^{n-m}.\] Using a result on approximation equations, a weak solution in pluripotential sense can be constructed from a decreasing function sequence. Supposing that \(\int_Me^{nf}(1+n|f|)^p\omega^n\) is bounded for some \(p>n\), the author shows that there exists a constant \(C\) such that for all \(t\in(0,1]\), the author obtains \(\|\varphi_t\|_{L^\infty}<C\) for admissible solution \(\varphi_t\) to approximation equation Eq. (8). This \(L^\infty\)-estimate gives the strong stability estimate and then the author constructs a solution to \[ (\chi+\tilde{\chi}+\sqrt{-1}\partial\bar{\partial}\varphi_t)^m=e^{mf}\omega^n,\quad\sup_M\varphi=0, \tag{9} \] where \[\int_Me^{mf}\omega^n=\int_M(\chi+\tilde{\chi})^m\wedge\omega^{n-m}\] for \(e^{nf}\in L^q\), \(q>1\), by applying the classical diagonal method to choose a smooth sequence decreasing to a certain bounded function. So the author obtains the weak solution in the pluripotential sense. The uniqueness of the admissible solution to Eq. (9) up to an additive constant is given in this sense. When the holomorphic bisectional curvature is nonnegative, by making use of the Evans-Krylov theory and a Schauder estimate, the author obtains the \(C^\infty\)-estimate for weak solutions to Eq. (9) in the ample locus \(Amp(\tilde{\chi})\) with analytic singularities.