A potential theory for the \(k\)-curvature equation (Q900865)

The authors develop a potential theoretic approach for the \(k\)-curvature equation. As unsual, for a \(C^2\) function \(u\), the \(k\)-curvature of the graph of \(u\) is given by \[ H_k[u]=\sigma_k\bigg(D\bigg(\frac{Du}{\sqrt{1+|Du|^2}} \bigg)\bigg), \] where \(\sigma_k\) denotes the sum of the principal minors of order \(k\). In the same way as for the standard Laplace operator one can introduce the notion of \(H_k\)-sub(super)harmonic function. The main result of the paper is the following: Theorem. (i) For any bounded \(C^2\) function \(u\) which is strictly \(H_k\)-subharmonic, there exists an associated Radon measure \(\mu_k[u]\) such that \(H_k[u]\) is the density function of \(\mu_k[u]\); (ii) If \(\{u_j\}\) is a sequence of bounded strictly \(H_k\)-subharmonic functions which converges a.e. to a bounded strictly \(H_k\)-subharmonic function \(u\), then \(\mu_k[u_j]\to \mu_k[u]\) weakly.