The mean curvature of cylindrically bounded submanifolds (Q842307)

First, let us give a few definitions. A Riemannian manifold is stochastically complete if, for some (hence, for any) pair \((x,t)\in M\times[0,\infty)\), \(\int_M p(x,y,t)dy=1\) holds, where \(p(x,y,t)\) is the heat kernel of the Laplace operator. Otherwise, \(M\) is stochastically incomplete. One also defines: \[ C_b(t)=\begin{cases} \sqrt b \text{ cot}(\sqrt b t), \quad & \text{ if } b>0, \,\, t< \pi/2 \sqrt b \\ 1/t, \quad & \text{ if } b=0, \\ \sqrt{-b} \text{ coth}(\sqrt{-b} t), \quad & \text{ if } b<0. \end{cases} \] The authors prove the following Theorem. Let \(\varphi: M^m\to N^{n-\ell}\times \mathbb R^\ell\) be an isometric immersion of a complete Riemannian manifold \(M\) of dimension \(m>\ell+1\). Let \(B_N(r)\) be the geodesic ball of \(N^{n-\ell}\) centered at \(p\) with radius \(r\). Given \(q\in M\), assume that the radial sectional curvature \(K_N^{rad}\) along the radial geodesics issuing from \(p=\pi_N(\varphi(q))\in N^{n-\ell}\) is bounded by a constant \(b\) in \(B_N(r)\). Suppose that \[ \varphi(M)\subset B_N(r)\times\mathbb R, \] for \(r<\min(\text{inj}_N(p), \pi/\sqrt b)\), where we replace \(\pi/2\sqrt b\) by \(+\infty\) if \(b\leq 0\). (a) If \(\varphi: M^n\to N^{n-\ell}\times \mathbb R^\ell\) is proper, then \[ \sup_M |H| \geq \frac{m-\ell}{m} C_b(r). \] (b) If \[ \sup_M |H| < \frac{m-\ell}{m} C_b(r), \] then \(M\) is stochastically incomplete. Corollary. Let \(\varphi : M^{n-1}\to \mathbb R^n\) be a complete hypersurface with mean curvature \(H\). If \(\varphi(M)\subset B_{\mathbb R^2} \times \mathbb R^{n-2}\) and \(\sup_MH<1/(n-1)r\), then \(\varphi\) is not proper. Part (b) of the theorem generalizes results of \textit{St. Markvorsen} [J. Differ. Geom. 29, No. 1, 1--8 (1989; Zbl 0637.58033)], and \textit{G. P. Bessa} and \textit{J. F. Montenegro} [Bull. Lond. Math. Soc. 41, No. 2, 242--252 (2009; Zbl 1177.53057)] about stochastic incompleteness of certain minimal submanifolds of Hadamard manifolds. The corollary implies that a complete minimal hypersurface of \(\mathbb R^n\), \(n\geq 3\), with bounded projection in a two-dimensional subspace cannot be proper. The proofs depend on a Hessian comparison theorem and on a recent extension by Pigola et al. of the Omori-Yau maximum principle.