Abstract
We derive a priori estimates for second order derivatives of solutions to a wide class of fully nonlinear elliptic equations on Riemannian manifolds. There had been significant work in this direction, especially in connection with important geometric problems and other applications, but one had to make use of the special structures or needed extra assumptions which are more technical in nature to overcome various difficulties. In this paper we are able to remove most of the technical assumptions and derive the estimates under conditions which are close to optimal. These estimates enable one to prove existence results which are new even for bounded domains in Euclidean space.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Alexandrov, A.D.: Uniqueness theorems for surfaces in the large, I. Vestnik Leningrad. Univ. 11, 5–17 (1956)
Andrews, B.: Contraction of convex hypersurfaces in Euclidean space. Calc. Var. PDE 2, 151–171 (1994)
Caffarelli, L.A., Nirenberg, L., Spruck, J.: The Dirichlet problem for nonlinear second-order elliptic equations III: Functions of eigenvalues of the Hessians. Acta Math. 155, 261–301 (1985)
Chang, A., Gursky, M., Yang, P.: An equation of Monge–Ampère type in conformal geometry, and four-manifolds of positive Ricci curvature. Ann. Math. 2(155), 709–787 (2002)
Chen, S.-Y.S.: Local estimates for some fully nonlinear elliptic equations. Int. Math. Res. Not. 2005(55), 3403–3425 (2005)
Cheng, S.Y., Yau, S.T.: On the regularity of the solution of the n-dimensional Minkowski problem. Commun. Pure Appl. Math. 29, 495–516 (1976)
Chern, S.S.: Integral formulas for hypersurfaces in Euclidean space and their applications to uniqueness theorems. J. Math. Mech. 8, 947–955 (1959)
Chou, K.-S., Wang, X.-J.: A variational theory of the Hessian equation. Commun. Pure Appl. Math. 54, 1029–1064 (2001)
Fang, H., Lai, M.-J., Ma, X.-N.: On a class of fully nonlinear flows in Kähler geometry. J. Reine Angew. Math. 653, 189–220 (2011)
Ge, Y.-X., Wang, G.-F.: On a fully nonlinear Yamabe problem. Ann. Sci. Cole Norm. Sup. 4(39), 569–598 (2006)
Gerhardt, C.: Closed Weingarten hypersurfaces in Riemannian manifolds. J. Differ. Geom. 43, 612–641 (1996)
Guan, B.: The Dirichlet problem for a class of fully nonlinear elliptic equations. Commun. Partial Differ. Equ. 19, 399–416 (1994)
Guan, B.: The Dirichlet problem for Hessian equations on Riemannian manifolds. Calc. Var. PDE 8, 45–69 (1999)
Guan, B.: Second order estimates and regularity for fully nonlinear ellitpic equations on Riemannian manifolds. Duke Math. J. 163, 1491–1524 (2014)
Guan, B., Guan, P.-F.: Closed hypersurfaces of prescribed curvatures. Ann. Math. 2(156), 655–673 (2002)
Guan, B., Li, Q.: A Monge–Ampère type fully nonlinear equation on Hermitian manifolds. Discrete Contin. Dyn. Syst. Ser. B 17, 1991–1999 (2012)
Guan, B., Li, Q.: The Dirichlet problem for a complex Monge–Ampère type equation on Hermitian manifolds. Adv. Math. 246, 351–367 (2013)
Guan, B., Sun, W.: On a class of fully nonlinear elliptic equations on Hermitian manifolds. Calc. Var. PDE (2014). doi:10.1007/s00526-014-0810-1
Guan, P.-F., Li, J.-F., Li, Y.-Y.: Hypersurfaces of prescribed curvature measures. Duke Math. J. 161, 1927–1942 (2012)
Guan, P.-F., Li, Y.-Y.: On Weyl problem with nonnegative Gauss curvature. J. Differ. Geom. 39, 331–342 (1994)
Guan, P.-F., Li, Y.-Y.: \(C^{1,1}\) Regularity for solutions of a problem of Alexandrov. Commun. Pure Appl. Math. 50, 789–811 (1997)
Guan, P.-F., Ma, X.-N.: The Christoffel–Minkowski problem. I. Convexity of solutions of a Hessian equation. Invent. Math. 151, 553–577 (2003)
Guan, P.-F., Ren, C.-Y., Wang, Z.-Z.: Global \(C^2\) estimates for convex solutions of curvature equations. Commun. Pure Appl. Math. (2014). doi:10.1002/cpa.21528
Guan, P.-F., Wang, G.-F.: Local estimates for a class of fully nonlinear equations arising from conformal geometry. Int. Math. Res. Not. 2003(26), 1413–1432 (2003)
Guan, P.-F., Wang, G.-F.: A fully nonlinear conformal flow on locally conformally flat manifolds. J. Reine Angew. Math. 557, 219–238 (2003)
Guan, P.-F., Wang, X.-J.: On a Monge–Ampère equation arising in geometric optics. J. Differe. Geom 48, 205–222 (1998)
Gursky, M.J., Viaclovsky, J.A.: Prescribing symmetric functions of the eigenvalues of the Ricci tensor. Ann. Math. 2(166), 475–531 (2007)
Hong, J.-X., Zuily, C.: Isometric embedding of the 2-sphere with nonnegative curvature in \({\mathbb{R}}^3\). Math. Z. 219, 323–334 (1995)
Ivochkina, N. M.: The integral method of barrier functions and the Dirichlet problem for equations with operators of the Monge–Ampère type. (Russian) Mat. Sb. (N.S.) 112, 193–206 (1980) [English transl.: Math. USSR Sb. 40, 179–192 (1981)]
Li, A.-B., Li, Y.-Y.: On some conformally invariant fully nonlinear equations. Commun. Pure Appl. Math. 56, 1416–1464 (2003)
Li, Y.-Y.: Some existence results of fully nonlinear elliptic equations of Monge–Ampère type. Commun. Pure Appl. Math. 43, 233–271 (1990)
Ma, X.-N., Trudinger, N.S., Wang, X.-J.: Regularity of potential functions of the optimal transportation problem. Arch. Ration. Mech. Anal. 177, 151–183 (2005)
Nirenberg, L.: The Weyl and Minkowski problems in differential geometry in the large. Commun. Pure Appl. Math. 6, 337–394 (1953)
Pogorelov, A.V.: Regularity of a convex surface with given Gaussian curvature. Mat. Sb. 31, 88–103 (1952)
Pogorelov, A.V.: The Minkowski Multidimentional Problem. Winston, Washington (1978)
Sheng, W.-M., Trudinger, N., Wang, X.-J.: The Yamabe problem for higher order curvatures. J. Differ. Geom. 77, 515–553 (2007)
Sheng, W.-M., Urbas, J., Wang, X.-J.: Interior curvature bounds for a class of curvature equations. Duke J. Math. 123, 235–264 (2004)
Song, J., Weinkove, B.: On the convergence and singularities of the J-flow with applications to the Mabuchi energy. Commun. Pure Appl. Math. 61, 210–229 (2008)
Trudinger, N.S.: On the Dirichlet problem for Hessian equations. Acta Math. 175, 151–164 (1995)
Trudinger, N.S.: Recent developments in elliptic partial differential equations of Monge–Ampère type. ICM Madr. 3, 291–302 (2006)
Trudinger, N.S., Wang, X.-J.: Hessian measures. II. Ann. Math. 2(150), 579–604 (1999)
Urbas, J.: Hessian Equations on Compact Riemannian Manifolds, Nonlinear Problems in Mathematical Physics and Related Topics II 367–377. Kluwer/Plenum, New York (2002)
Viaclovsky, J.A.: Conformal geometry, contact geometry, and the calculus of variations. Duke Math. J. 101, 283–316 (2000)
Wang, X.-J.: A class of fully nonlinear elliptic equations and related functionals. Indiana Univ. Math. J. 43, 25–54 (1994)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Communicated by A. Chang.
Dedicate to Professor Wu Congxin on his 80th birthday.
Research of B. Guan was supported in part by NSF grants. Research of H. Jiao was supported in part by a CRC graduate fellowship.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Guan, B., Jiao, H. Second order estimates for Hessian type fully nonlinear elliptic equations on Riemannian manifolds. Calc. Var. 54, 2693–2712 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00526-015-0880-8
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00526-015-0880-8