The Bernstein theorem for a class of fourth order equations (Q662837)

This paper is concerned with the study of convex solutions for the fourth order equation \(U^{ij} w_{ij}=0\) in the whole \(R^n\), where \((U^{ij})\) is the cofactor matrix of the Hessian matrix \(D^2 u\) and \(w=[\text{det}\, D^2 u]^{\alpha-1}\), \(\alpha\geq 0\), \(\alpha\neq 1\). The main result of the paper establishes that if \(0\leq \alpha<1/4\), then any convex solution in the plane is a quadratic polynomial. This result includes a characterization of entire solutions in the plane for Ambreu's equation (which holds for \(\alpha=0\)). The second result of the paper gives a characterization of solutions in the case \(\alpha=0\), \(n=2,3,4\). In this setting the author proves that any solution \(u\) whose graph is complete with respect to Calabi's metric has the property that its graph is a paraboloid. The proofs rely on various a priori estimates combined with a rescaling argument.