Complete surfaces with negative extrinsic curvature

Abstract: N. V. Efimov cite{Ef1} proved that there is no complete, smooth surface in

R^{3}

with uniformly negative curvature. We extend this to isometric immersions in a 3-manifold with pinched curvature: if

M^{3}

has sectional curvature between two constants

K_{2}

and

K_{3}

, then there exists

K_{1} < m i n (K_{2}, 0)

such that

M

contains no smooth, complete immersed surface with curvature below

K_{1}

. Optimal values of

K_{1}

are determined. This results rests on a phenomenon of propagations for degenerations of solutions of hyperbolic Monge-Amp{`e}re equations.

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