Minimal graphs in \(M \times \mathbb{R}\) (Q934643)

In this paper the authors study minimal hypersurfaces in the product manifold of a manifold \(M\) with the real line. This is a relative new area of research which follows the footsteps of \textit{U. Abresch} and \textit{H. Rosenberg} in [Mat. Contemp. 28, 1-28 (2005; Zbl 1118.53036)], where surfaces with constant mean curvature in \(3\) dimensional homogeneous spaces were studied. Note that in this setting any function \(u\) of a domain \(\Omega \subset M\) to \(\mathbb R\) yields in a standard way a hypersurface of \(M \times \mathbb R\). Such hypersurface is called a graph immersion. For graph immersions the authors show that if the boundary of the domain \(\Omega\) contains a non compact component there exist no non trivial minimal graph immersion (with \(u\) not changing sign and \(u\) vanishing on the boundary). They also show that if the graph is complete and minimal, then the boundary consists of geodesics and show that \(u\) goes to infinity when approaching the boundary. Finally they also discuss the problem of finding the maximal number of disjoint domains that admit a minimal graph which vanishes at the border. A complete answer is given under the additional assumption that \(M\) is two dimensional and has non-negative Gaussian curvature.