A minimum principle for Lagrangian graphs

Abstract

The classical minimum principle is foundational in convex and complex analysis and plays an important role in the study of the real and complex Monge-Ampere equations. This note establishes a minimum principle in Lagrangian geometry. This principle relates the classical Lagrangian angle of Harvey-Lawson and the space-time Lagrangian angle introduced recently by Rubinstein-Solomon. As an application, this gives a new formula for solutions of the degenerate special Lagrangian equation in space-time in terms of the (time) partial Legendre transform of a family of solutions of obstacle problems for the (space) non-degenerate special Lagrangian equation.