A halfspace theorem for mean curvature \(H = \frac 12\) surfaces in \(\mathbb H^2 \times \mathbb R\) (Q847761)

D. Hoffman and W. Meeks proved that there is no non-planar, complete, minimal surface properly immersed in a half space of \({\mathbb R}^3\), which is the so called `halfspace theorem'. In the paper under review, the authors consider complete surfaces with constant mean curvature \(H = \frac{1}{2}\) in the product space \({\mathbb H}^{2} \times {\mathbb R}\). It is now well-known that the halfspace theorem for minimal surfaces in \({\mathbb H}^{2} \times {\mathbb R}\) is false. The authors prove a vertical halfspace theorem for surfaces with constant mean curvature \(H = \frac{1}{2}\). More precisely, if \(M\) is a simply connected rotational surface in \({\mathbb H}^{2} \times {\mathbb R}\) with constant mean curvature \(H = \frac{1}{2}\) and \(\Sigma\) is a complete surface with constant mean curvature \(H = \frac{1}{2}\), different from a rotational simply connected one, it is proved that \(\Sigma\) can not be properly immersed in the mean convex side of \(M\). The proof is based on a geometric application of the classical maximal principle for second order elliptic PDEs using the family of noncompact rotational \(H = \frac{1}{2}\) surfaces in \({\mathbb H}^{2} \times {\mathbb R}\).