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On the Hodge Extension of Local Kähler Forms

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  • Claude Fable 5.1 · bare
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Abstract

Let XX be a Stein manifold, and let K={h≤0}K=\{h\le0\} be a compact sublevel set of a strictly plurisubharmonic function hh defined near KK. It is known that KK is meromorphically convex in XX if and only if ddchdd^ch extends to a Hodge form on XX. We show that if H2(X,Z)H_2(X,\mathbb Z) is the direct sum of a free abelian group and a torsion group, for example if it is finitely generated, then any extension of ddchdd^ch to a Kähler form on XX can be modified, after replacing hh by a positive multiple, into a Hodge form. Thus meromorphic convexity of KK is equivalent to the extendability of ddchdd^ch as a Kähler form. We also show that the topological assumption cannot be dropped: we construct a Stein manifold XX of dimension 66 with H2(X,Z)≅QH_2(X,\mathbb Z)\cong\mathbb Q, a sublevel set KK as above that is not meromorphically convex although ddchdd^ch extends to a Kähler form, and a totally real torus in KK that is isotropic for a Kähler form but is not meromorphically convex. This shows that the Hodge condition in Guedj's characterization of meromorphically convex totally real submanifolds cannot be weakened to a Kähler condition, and gives counterexamples to two criteria stated by Cieliebak and Eliashberg.

Introduction

Let XX be a Stein manifold. By a complex hypersurface of XX we mean a closed analytic subset of XX of pure codimension 1. For a compact set Q⊂XQ \subset X, its meromorphically convex hull is

Q^M(X)={x∈X:every complex hypersurface of X through x meets Q},\widehat{Q}_{M}(X) = \{x \in X : \text{every complex hypersurface of } X \text{ through } x \text{ meets } Q\},

and QQ is called meromorphically (or hypersurface) convex if Q^M(X)=Q\widehat{Q}_{M}(X) = Q. By [3 Prop. 1.2], this is precisely the hull of QQ with respect to meromorphic functions on XX.

In [2] it was proved that a sublevel set K={h≤0}K = \{h \le0\} of a locally defined strictly plurisubharmonic function hh is meromorphically (or hypersurface) convex on a Stein manifold XX if and only if ddchdd^{c}h extends as a Hodge form to all of XX, where by a Hodge form on a Stein manifold XX we mean a Kähler form Ω\Omega whose cohomology class [Ω]∈H2(X,R)[\Omega] \in H^{2}(X,\mathbb{R}) lies in the image of the natural map H2(X,Z)→H2(X,R)H^{2}(X,\mathbb{Z}) \to H^{2}(X,\mathbb{R}); equivalently, it has integral periods. Here and below, if hh is a function defined on an open set U⊃KU \supset K, we say that ddchdd^{c}h extends to a Kähler (resp. Hodge) form ω\omega on XX if ω\omega is a Kähler (resp. Hodge) form on XX with ω=ddch\omega= dd^{c}h on some neighbourhood of KK. On the other hand, Cieliebak and Eliashberg [5 Criterion 1.6] stated, without proof, that such convexity of KK (called rational convexity in [5]) is equivalent to the extension of ddchdd^{c}h merely as a Kähler form. The following theorem confirms that, up to replacing hh by a positive multiple, which does not change KK, all three conditions are equivalent under a mild additional assumption on the topology of XX.

Theorem 1. Let XX be a Stein manifold such that

H2(X,Z)≅F⊕T,(1)H_{2}(X,\mathbb{Z}) \cong F \oplus T, \tag*{(1)}

where FF is a free abelian group (possibly of infinite rank) and TT is a torsion group. Suppose that U⊂XU \subset X is an open set, h:U→Rh : U \to\mathbb{R} is a strictly plurisubharmonic function, and K={h≤0}K = \{h \le0\} is a compact subset of UU. Assume that ddchdd^{c}h extends to a Kähler form ω\omega on XX. Then, there exists a positive integer NN such that ddc(Nh)dd^{c}(Nh) extends to a Hodge form ΩH\Omega_{H} on XX. In particular, this implies that KK is meromorphically convex in XX.

Note that the decomposition (1) always holds if H2(X,Z)H_{2}(X,\mathbb{Z}) is finitely generated, see § 2 for details. Further, by [1], a Stein manifold of dimension nn has the homotopy type of a CW complex of dimension at most nn. If dim⁡CX=2\dim_{\mathbb{C}} X = 2, the cellular chain complex of such a CW complex has no 3-chains, so H2(X,Z)H_{2}(X,\mathbb{Z}) is the group of cellular 2-cycles, a subgroup of the free abelian group of 2-chains; hence, it is free. Thus, Theorem 1 holds for every Stein surface. Also, Prop. 2 in § 4.3 shows that (1) is not required if the image of H2H_{2} of a neighbourhood of the holomorphically convex hull K^O(X)\widehat{K}_{\mathcal{O}(X)} of KK in H2(X,Z)H_{2}(X,\mathbb{Z}) consists of torsion classes; in that case a Kähler extension of ddchdd^{c}h can be taken exact.

But in general, as the next theorem shows, the topological hypothesis (1) in Theorem 1 cannot be dropped. We construct a Stein manifold XX with H2(X,Z)≅QH_{2}(X,\mathbb{Z}) \cong\mathbb{Q}, so that H2(X,Z)H_{2}(X,\mathbb{Z}) is not of the form F⊕TF \oplus T (it is torsion-free but not free), and with Im⁡H2(X,Z)→H2(X,R)=0\operatorname{Im} H_{2}(X,\mathbb{Z}) \to H_{2}(X,\mathbb{R}) = 0, so that every Hodge form on XX is exact (see Lemma 8). Together with KK, we construct a smooth compact totally real torus Λ⊂int⁡K\Lambda\subset\operatorname{int} K which is isotropic with respect to a Kähler form on XX, but not with respect to any Hodge form on XX, and which is not meromorphically convex.

Theorem 2. There exist a Stein manifold XX of complex dimension 6 with H2(X,Z)≅QH_{2}(X,\mathbb{Z}) \cong\mathbb{Q}, an open set U⊂XU \subset X, a strictly plurisubharmonic function h:U→Rh: U \to\mathbb{R} such that K={h≤0}K = \{h \leq0\} is a compact subset of UU, and a smooth compact totally real torus Λ⊂int⁡K\Lambda\subset\operatorname{int} K, such that the following hold.

(i) ddchdd^{c}h extends to a Kähler form ω\omega on XX.

(ii) The torus Λ\Lambda is isotropic for ω\omega, that is, ω∣Λ=0\omega|_{\Lambda} = 0.

(iii) For every λ>0\lambda> 0, every Kähler form Ω\Omega on XX extending ddc(λh)dd^{c}(\lambda h) satisfies [Ω]≠0[\Omega] \neq0 in H2(X,R)H^{2}(X,\mathbb{R}). In particular, for no positive integer NN does ddc(Nh)dd^{c}(Nh) extend to a Hodge form on XX.

(iv) The meromorphically convex hull Λ^M(X)\widehat{\Lambda}_{M(X)} contains a holomorphic annulus AA with ∂A⊂Λ\partial A \subset\Lambda and A⊄KA \not\subset K. In particular, neither Λ\Lambda nor KK is meromorphically convex.

The theorem shows that the equivalence between meromorphic convexity of KK and the extendability of ddchdd^{c}h as a Kähler form, stated in [5 Criterion 1.6], does not hold on arbitrary Stein manifolds.

Concerning (ii) and (iv): a classical result of Duval and Sibony [7] states that a smooth compact totally real submanifold of Cn\mathbb{C}^{n} is rationally convex (in Cn\mathbb{C}^{n} this is the same as meromorphically convex) if and only if it is isotropic with respect to some Kähler form on Cn\mathbb{C}^{n}. Guedj [9] extended this to Stein manifolds: a smooth compact totally real submanifold of a Stein manifold XX is meromorphically convex if and only if it is isotropic with respect to some Hodge form on XX, and in [3 Theorem 3.2] it was shown that isotropy with respect to an exact Kähler form ddcφdd^{c}\varphi is equivalent to strong meromorphic convexity. In Cn\mathbb{C}^{n} every Kähler form is exact, so these statements agree with [7]. By (ii) and (iv), the torus Λ\Lambda is isotropic for a Kähler form but is not meromorphically convex, which gives a counterexample to [5 Criterion 1.8(a)]. By Guedj’s theorem, Λ\Lambda is not isotropic for any Hodge form on XX. This can also be seen directly: every Kähler form for which Λ\Lambda is isotropic has a positive period on an explicit 2-cycle (Lemma 14), while on XX the only integral class is 0.

The construction in Theorem 2 uses the following ingredients (see Figure 1 in § 5): a Stein manifold YY with

Schematic picture of $\Lambda \subset X$, with $\arg w$ suppressed. Left: $\Lambda$ over the figure-eight $\Gamma$; right: the fibre $\pi^{-1}(0)$

Figure 1. Schematic picture of Λ⊂X\Lambda\subset X, with arg⁡w\arg w suppressed. Left: Λ\Lambda over the figure-eight Γ\Gamma; dotted: the extra zero set of h0h_0. Right: the fibre π−1(0)\pi^{-1}(0), where C0,C1C_0,C_1 bound the annulus AA.

Hom⁡(H1(Y,Z),Z)=Hom⁡(H2(Y,Z),Z)=0andH1(Y,Z)⊗Q≠0.\operatorname{Hom}(H_{1}(Y,\mathbb{Z}),\mathbb{Z}) = \operatorname{Hom}(H_{2}(Y,\mathbb{Z}),\mathbb{Z}) = 0 \quad\text{and}\quad H_{1}(Y,\mathbb{Z}) \otimes\mathbb{Q} \neq0.

Such a manifold YHY_{H} of dimension 2 was constructed by Hulek [12 Prop. 2]; it is the complement in the unit bidisc of a sequence of smooth analytic curves (see also [6 Example 1]). Our construction is motivated by this example but is done differently: our YY is a domain in C5\mathbb{C}^{5} that deformation retracts onto a domain in R5\mathbb{R}^{5} with these properties. In Y∩R5Y \cap\mathbb{R}^{5} we place a smooth figure-eight curve Γ\Gamma whose two loops represent a nonzero class in H1(Y,Q)H_{1}(Y,\mathbb{Q}) and its negative. The torus Λ⊂X=Y×C∗\Lambda\subset X = Y \times\mathbb{C}^{*} lies over Γ\Gamma; its fibres are circles in C∗\mathbb{C}^{*} centred at 0, with radius varying smoothly along Γ\Gamma and taking different values on the two branches over the double point. Since Γ⊂R5\Gamma\subset\mathbb{R}^{5}, which is totally real, the required plurisubharmonic functions can be written down explicitly; this is used to construct a global Kähler form and a local potential vanishing to second order exactly on Λ\Lambda. Although somewhat technical, this step uses only elementary properties of plurisubharmonic functions, gluing with cutoff functions, and an explicit correction by pluriharmonic functions near the double point.

The same construction can be carried out in Hulek’s domain YHY_H, which gives, with X=YH×C∗X = Y_H \times\mathbb{C}^{*}, an example as in Theorem 2 with dim⁡CX=3\dim_{\mathbb{C}} X = 3. Indeed, YH⊂C2Y_H \subset\mathbb{C}^{2} satisfies the topological conditions above, and a figure-eight Γ⊂YH\Gamma\subset Y_H with the required homology, straight near its double point, can be made O(YH)\mathcal{O}(Y_H)-convex by a small perturbation away from the double point. A nonnegative strictly plurisubharmonic function on YHY_H vanishing on Γ\Gamma to second order is then obtained by gluing a local model near Γ\Gamma with a global strictly plurisubharmonic function, using the O(YH)\mathcal{O}(Y_H)-convexity of Γ\Gamma, and the rest of the argument in Sec. 5 applies with only notational changes. We chose to present the higher-dimensional version because there the construction of the local potential is particularly explicit and elementary, and no perturbation of Γ\Gamma is needed. Since Theorem 1 holds for all Stein surfaces, the dimension 3 is optimal.

Acknowledgments. The author obtained the proof of Theorem 1 in the fall of 2025, but all attempts to remove assumption (1) were unsuccessful. The counterexample of Theorem 2 was eventually found with the help of AI, specifically Claude Fable 5.1, which proposed the original construction; the construction presented here has been substantially simplified. AI was also used to assist with editing the exposition. The author bears full responsibility for the correctness of all proofs and for the content of this paper. The author thanks Purvi Gupta for many valuable discussions related to the problem, and in particular for identifying H2(X,Z)≅QH_2(X,\mathbb{Z}) \cong\mathbb{Q} as a potential source of a counterexample. The author is partially supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.

Background: periods, Hodge classes, Levi form

Sections 2.1 and 2.2 collect in one place the facts relating homology and cohomology that are used throughout the paper: the universal coefficient theorem, periods of closed forms, integral (Hodge) classes, and the structure of H2(X,Z)H_2(X,\mathbb{Z}). The results are standard. Most of the material can be found in [10 Section 3.1] for the universal coefficient theorem and the properties of Ext, and in [13 Chapter 18] for the de Rham theorem in terms of integration over smooth singular chains. We include short proofs to fix the notation. Sec. 2.3 discusses the Levi form with some estimates that will be used in the proof of the main results.

In the next two subsections XX is an arbitrary smooth manifold.

Periods and the universal coefficient theorem

If β\beta is a closed kk-form on XX and CC is an integral kk-cycle, the period ∫Cβ\int_C \beta depends only on the de Rham class [β][\beta] and on the homology class [C]∈Hk(X,Z)[C] \in H_k(X,\mathbb{Z}). Hence, a class c∈Hk(X,R)c \in H^k(X,\mathbb{R}) (or Hk(X,C)H^k(X,\mathbb{C})) defines a homomorphism ⟨c,⋅⟩:Hk(X,Z)→R\langle c,\cdot\rangle: H_k(X,\mathbb{Z}) \to\mathbb{R} (or C\mathbb{C}), the period homomorphism of $c. It vanishes on torsion classes, because R\mathbb{R} and C\mathbb{C} are torsion-free.

For every abelian group AA the universal coefficient theorem gives a short exact sequence

0→Ext⁡(Hk−1(X,Z),A)→Hk(X,A)→Hom⁡(Hk(X,Z),A)→0,(2)0 \to\operatorname{Ext}(H_{k-1}(X,\mathbb{Z}), A) \to H^k(X,A) \to\operatorname{Hom}(H_k(X,\mathbb{Z}), A) \to0, \tag*{(2)}

which is natural in AA and in XX.

Proposition 1. We have the following.

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