On Levi-flat hypersurfaces with prescribed boundary

Abstract

We address the problem of existence and uniqueness of a Levi-flat hypersurface $M$ in $C^n$ with prescribed compact boundary $S$ for $n\ge 3$. The situation for $n\ge 3$ differs sharply from the well studied case $n=2$. We first establish necessary conditions on $S$ at both complex and CR points, needed for the existence of $M$. All CR points have to be nonminimal and all complex points have to be "flat". Then, adding a positivity condition at complex points, which is similar to the ellipticity for $n=2$ and excluding the possibility of $S$ to contain complex $(n-2)$-dimensional submanifolds, we obtain a solution $M$ to the above problem as a projection of a possibly singular Levi-flat hypersurface in $R\times C^n$. It turns out that $S$ has to be a topological sphere with two complex points and with compact CR orbits, also topological spheres, serving as boundaries of the (possibly singular) complex leaves of $M$. There are no more global assumptions on $S$ like being contained in the boundary of a strongly pseudoconvex domain, as it was in case $n=2$. Furthermore, we show in our situation that any other Levi-flat hypersurface with boundary $S$ must coincide with the constructed solution.

21 pages