- Stein manifold
In
mathematics , a Stein manifold in the theory ofseveral complex variables andcomplex manifold s is a complexsubmanifold of thevector space of "n" complex dimensions. The name is for Karl Stein.Definition
A
complex manifold of complex dimension is called a Stein manifold if the following conditions hold:* is holomorphically convex, i.e. for every compact subset , the so-called "holomorphic convex hull",
::
:is again a "compact" subset of . Here denotes the ring of
holomorphic functions on .* is holomorphically separable, i.e. if are two points in , then there is a holomorphic function
::
:such that .
Properties and examples of Stein manifolds
* The standard complex space is a Stein manifold.
* It can be shown quite easily that every closed complex submanifold of a Stein manifold is a Stein manifold, too.
* The embedding theorem for Stein manifolds states the following: Every Stein manifold of complex dimension can be embedded into by abiholomorphic proper map . (The proof of this theorem involvescomplex analysis ).These facts imply that a Stein manifold is a closed complex submanifold of complex space, whose complex structure is that of the
ambient space (because the embedding is biholomorphic).* In one complex dimension the Stein condition can be simplified: a connected
Riemann surface is a Stein manifoldif and only if it is not compact. This can be proved using a version of theRunge theorem for Riemann surfaces, due to Behnke and Stein.
* Every Stein manifold is holomorphically spreadable, i.e. for every point , there are holomorphic functions defined on all of which form a local coordinate system when restricted to some open neighborhood of .
* Being a Stein manifold is equivalent to being a (complex) "strongly pseudoconvex manifold". The latter means that it has a strongly pseudoconvex (or plurisubharmonic) exhaustive function, i.e. a smooth real function on (which can be assumed to be a morse function) with , such that the subsets are compact in for every real number . This is a solution to the so-called Levi problem [ [http://planetmath.org/encyclopedia/LeviProblem.html PlanetMath: solution of the Levi problem ] ] . The function invites a generalization of "Stein manifold" to the idea of a corresponding class of compact complex manifolds with boundary called Stein domains. A Stein domain is the preimage . Some authors call such manifolds therefore strictly pseudoconvex manifolds.
*Related to the previous item, another equivalent and more topological definition in complex dimension 2 is the following: a Stein surface is a complex surface "X" with a real-valued Morse function "f" on "X" such that, away from the critical points of "f", the field of complex tangencies to the preimage "X""c" = "f"−1("c") is a contact structure that induces an orientation on "Xc" agreeing with the usual orientation as the boundary of "f"−1(−,"c"). That is, "f"−1(−,"c") is a Stein filling of "Xc".Numerous further characterizations of such manifolds exist, in particular capturing the property of their having "many"
holomorphic function s taking values in the complex numbers. See for exampleCartan's theorems A and B , relating tosheaf cohomology . The initial impetus was to have a description of the properties of the domain of definition of the (maximal)analytic continuation of ananalytic function .In the
GAGA set of analogies, Stein manifolds correspond to affine varieties.Stein manifolds are in some sense dual to the
elliptic manifold s in complex analysis which admit "many" holomorphic functions from the complex numbers into themselves. It is known that a Stein manifold is elliptic if and only if it is fibrant in the sense of so-called "holomorphic homotopy theory".Notes
Literature
* | year=1990 | volume=7 (including a proof of the embedding theorem)
* | year=1998 | journal=Annals of Mathematics. Second Series | issn=0003-486X | volume=148 | issue=2 | pages=619–693 (definitions and constructions of Stein domains and manifolds in dimension 4)
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