A Schwarz lemma for Kähler affine metrics and the canonical potential of a proper convex cone (Q2255361)

A proper convex cone in \(\mathbb R^{n+1}\) is a convex cone \(\mathcal{C}\) whose dual open cone is not empty. Its geometry is encoded in a single function, the canonical potential, which arises as solution to a certain Monge-Ampère equation. The level sets of this function foliate the interior of the cone in hyperbolic affine spheres. The restriction to the convex cone of the Levi-Civita connection of the surrounding space, together with the potential, endow the convex cone with a Hessian metric, a particular case of a Kähler affine metric. Hessian metrics (resp. Kähler affine metrics) can be interpreted as smooth metric measure spaces (resp. local smooth metric measure spaces). To such a space is associated the Bakry-Émery Ricci tensor; lower bounds on such tensor correspond to lower bounds on the usual Ricci curvature of some metric on a space associated to the metric measure space. In the case of a proper convex cone \(\mathcal{C}\), such space is the tube \(\mathcal{T}_\mathcal{C}=\mathcal{C}+i\mathbb R^{n+1}\subset\mathbb C^{n+1}\). The Kähler affine metric on \(\mathcal{C}\) lifts to a Kähler metric on \(\mathcal{T}_\mathcal{C}\). The lower bound on the Ricci curvature of the Kähler metric on \(\mathcal{T}_\mathcal{C}\) is one of the ingredients of Yau's Schwarz lemma. The paper under review studies how a similar Schwarz lemma, involving the Kähler affine Ricci curvature, holds in the context of Kähler affine structures. This involves comparison geometry of the Bakry-Émery Ricci tensor (Theorem 1.1). What is mostly interesting is on the one hand the interplay between Kähler and Kähler affine structures; the latter can indeed be considered as real analogues of Kähler metrics. On the other hand, another novelty point is the above mentioned interpretation of Kähler affine structures as local metric measure spaces, which allows to consider a certain perturbed Laplacian as a self-adjoint operator. The paper considers also the geometry of domains in \(\mathbb R^{n+1}\), see Theorem 1.2. The Kähler affine version of the Schwarz lemma, proved by the author, allows to establish the uniqueness of the Kähler affine metric on an open convex domain of \(\mathbb R^{n+1}\), whose existence has been proved by Cheng and Yau (Theorem 1.3). In the special case of cones, the author shows that the canonical potential of the cone is a barrier function for the cone (Theorem 1.4); such notion is of great importance in the context of interior-point methods for the resolution of convex programming problems. In order to obtain such a theorem, one has to study the Ricci curvature of the Hessian metric on the cone. Finally, further applications are given to Kähler affine Ricci flat metrics, the real counterpart of Kähler and Ricci flat metrics, i.e., Calabi-Yau metrics (Theorems 1.7 and 1.8).