Foliations by stationary disks of almost complex domains (Q966111)

Stationary discs have been introduced by L. Lempert in 1981 and, since then, they have become a very important tool in complex analysis of several variables. In particular, using foliations via stationary discs it is possible to prove extension of biholomorphisms between domains, or to show existence of regular solutions to the homogeneous Monge-Ampére equation with a singularity at a given (interior or boundary) point. In the paper under review the authors study stationary discs in strongly pseudoconvex domains of almost complex spaces. The main result is the following. If a bounded strongly pseudoconvex domain \(D\) with smooth boundary in an almost complex manifold is biholomorphic to a strictly linearly convex domain of \(\mathbb C^n\) endowed with a small deformation of the standard complex structure, then for any point \(p\) of \(D\) there exists a foliation by stationary discs centered at \(p\).The existence of an almost complex foliation by stationary discs allows also to define generalized Riemann mappings. The result is obtained by suitably generalizing previous results by Coupet, Gaussier, Sukhov. In fact, the authors consider the differential equation characterizing stationary discs and determine the associated linearized operator at a given stationary disc. If such a linear operator is invertible then the implicit function theorem guarantees existence of the searched foliation. Invertibility of the linear operator is therefore shown to hold in the case of the main theorem. In the last part of the paper the authors consider fruitfully the case of foliations by stationary discs centered at boundary points, proving that in the almost complex category similar results to those for the complex category hold.