Generalized maximum principles and the unicity of complete spacelike hypersurfaces immersed in a Lorentzian product space

Local differential geometry of Lorentz metrics, indefinite metrics (53B30) Differential geometry of immersions (minimal, prescribed curvature, tight, etc.) (53C42) Global differential geometry of Lorentz manifolds, manifolds with indefinite metrics (53C50)

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The authors prove several classification results for complete space-like hypersurfaces \(\Sigma^n\) of a Lorentzian product space \(\overline M^{n+1}:= \mathbb R _1 \times M^n,\) where \(\mathbb R _1\) is the real line equipped with a negative definite inner product and \(M^n\) is a connected oriented Riemannian manifold of dimension \(n.\) This product manifold is naturally equipped with the Lorentzian metric \(\langle \; , \; \rangle = - \pi^*_{\mathbb R}(dt^2) + \pi_M^* (\langle \; , \; \rangle_M),\) where \(\pi_{\mathbb R}\) and \(\pi_M\) denote the canonical projections from \(\overline M^{n+1}\) onto each factor. Let \(H\) denote the mean curvature of \(\Sigma^n\) in \(\overline M^{n+1},\;\) \(h = (\pi_{\mathbb R})|_{\Sigma}\) be the height function and for a fixed \(t_0 \in \mathbb R\) call \(\{ t_0 \} \times M^n\) a slice of \(\overline M^{n+1}.\) The authors consider isometric immersions \(\psi : \Sigma^n \to \overline M^{n+1} = \mathbb R_1 \times M^n\) of a complete space-like hypersurface whose sectional curvature \(K_M\) of its fiber \(M^n\) satisfies \(- \kappa \leq K_M \leq 0\) for some constant \(\kappa > 0.\) In their first theorem the authors assume additionally that \(\Sigma^n\) lies between two slices of \(\overline M^{n+1}\) and that \(|\nabla h|\) is bounded on \(\Sigma^n.\) Then if \(H\) is bounded and if it does not change sign on \(\Sigma^n\) it follows that \(H\) is not globally bounded away from zero. In particular, if \(H\) is constant then \(\Sigma^n\) is maximal, i.e., \(H = 0.\) The technical tool for the proof is the well-known maximum principle of Omori and Yau. In their second theorem the authors assume \(- \kappa \leq K_M \leq 0\) and that \(H\) is now constant. Using a generalized maximum principle of Yau, they prove that if the height function satisfies one of the two conditions, one of which is \(|\nabla h|^2 \leq [n/k (n-1)] H^2,\) then \(\Sigma^n\) is a slice. It is also proved in this paper that a complete space-like hypersurface \(\Sigma^n\) with mean curvature \(H\) which does not change sign and for which \(|\nabla h|\) is Lebesgue integrable is necessarily maximal and with some additional conditions on the Ricci curvature that it must be a slice. These results and techniques are then applied to study the rigidity of entire vertical graphs of smooth functions \(u \in C^{\infty}(M)\) in such Lorentzian product ambient spaces.

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