Let $\Omega\subset\mathbb H^2$ be a bounded smooth horoconvex domain and let $\psi_1>0$ be its first Dirichlet eigenfunction. We prove that \[ \operatorname{Hess}_{\mathbb H^2}(-\log\psi_1)>0 \] throughout $\Omega$, with no restriction on the diameter or the first eigenvalue. The proof is by contradiction. A degenerate Hessian would yield a shifted translation Killing derivative with a singular interior zero. Then the boundary-zero theorem of Grossi and Provenzano shows that the shifted Killing derivative has exactly two zeros on the boundary. A nodal-domain argument on the surface rules this out. As an application we prove that every superlevel set of $\psi_1$ is horoconvex: every level curve has geodesic curvature at least $1$. The Hessian bound makes the shifted construction available for Killing fields with nonvanishing rotation part, and yields the pointwise inequality $|(\operatorname{Hess} u)^{-1}J\nabla u|\le1$ for $u=-\log\psi_1$, where $J$ is rotation by $\pi/2$; a boundary-zero count for translation fields with arbitrary axis completes the argument.
Let $D\subset\mathbb{R}^n$, $n\ge2$, be a bounded convex domain, and let $u_D$ be the torsion function for the restricted half-Laplacian. We prove that $D^2u_D$ is negative definite at every point of $D$. The argument is based on the reflected harmonic extension in a slit domain. Quantitative Schauder estimates in slit domains yield parameter-uniform estimates for the first and second derivatives of the edge remainder; a Schur-complement calculation then determines the inertia of the extended Hessian near the slit edge. Superharmonicity of the logarithmic Hessian determinant and the Gleason--Wolff zero-set theorem exclude interior degeneracy. A method of continuity starting from the unit ball proves the result for smooth uniformly convex domains, and an exhaustion argument treats arbitrary bounded convex domains.
Let $n\ge2$ and let $\Omega\subset\mathbb R^n$ be an arbitrary bounded open convex set. The author prove that, for $p>n$, the Dirichlet problem \[ \det D^2u=(-u)^p\quad\text{in }\Omega, \qquad u=0\quad\text{on }\partial\Omega, \qquad u>0\quad\text{in }\Omega \] has at most one convex Alexandrov solution. The proof is based on the affine behavior of the Monge--Amp\`ere energy and on a power-concavity property of the $L^{p+1}$ mass along the Legendre path connecting two solutions. At the homogeneous exponent $p=n$, the same argument shows that any two nonzero solutions with the same coefficient are positive multiples of one another.
Let $2\le k\le n$, let $\Omega\subset\mathbb{R}^n$ be open and convex, and let $u$ be a convex viscosity solution of $\sigma_k(D^2u)=1$ in $\Omega$. We prove that the set on which $u$ fails to be locally $C^2$ has vanishing $(n-1)$-dimensional Hausdorff measure. In the intermediate range $3\le k<n$, this gives a codimension-one refinement of the known almost-everywhere partial regularity, and the exponent is sharp. More generally, for a convex viscosity subsolution of $\sigma_k(D^2u)\ge\lambda>0$, we obtain Hausdorff bounds for strata defined by the affine dimension of all supporting contact sets. The proof combines a support-dependent Chou--Wang barrier argument, an estimate for the product of the smallest $k$ semiaxes of a John ellipsoid, and Mooney's convex section-covering theorem. As a direct analytical consequence, the full distributional Hessian is absolutely continuous and $u\in W^{2,1}_{\mathrm{loc}}(\Omega)$, yielding a $k$-Hessian counterpart of the $W^{2,1}$ regularity known for singular Monge--Amp\`ere solutions. In a logically separate structural part, we characterize the distinguished number of flat directions, $n-k+1$, by an asymptotic infimum mean-value formula over affine sections, and explain how this mean-value heuristic leads to the supporting-contact geometry used in the proof.
We study the quasilinear Liouville equation \[ -\Delta_n u=e^u \] on complete noncompact Riemannian manifolds with nonnegative Ricci curvature. Our first result shows that, if a solution $u$ satisfies the optimal logarithmic lower bound \[ u(x)\ge -\frac{n^2}{n-1}\log r(x)+o(\log r(x)) \quad \text{as }r(x)\to+\infty, \] then the underlying manifold is isometric to the Euclidean space and $u$ is a standard bubble solution. Both the leading coefficient and the remainder term in the assumption are sharp. The key ingredient in the proof is the connection between the logarithmic lower bound and a sharp upper bound on the total volume of the solution. We also formulate a conjecture concerning the interaction between the sub-logarithmic decay of solutions and the underlying geometry, and prove it for $n=2$, as well as for $n\ge 3$ under a strengthened assumption.
Let $(L,e^{-\phi})$ be a positive Hermitian holomorphic line bundle over a compact Riemann surface $X$, and put $\omega=\ddbar\phi$. We obtain effective pointwise estimates for the Bergman form of $H^0(X,K_X\otimes L^m)$. If $\Ric\omega\leq\omega$ and the shortest nonconstant closed geodesic has length at least $2\pi$, then \[ K_{m\phi}\geq \frac{2m-1}{4\pi}\,\omega, \] and the constant is sharp on $(\mathbb P^1,\mathcal O_{\mathbb P^1}(2))$. A local version, depending on an upper curvature bound and the injectivity radius, recovers the first two terms of the Bergman expansion when the curvature is constant. Under the two-sided bound $-\omega\leq\Ric\omega\leq\omega$ and the same closed-geodesic hypothesis, we also prove \[ K_{m\phi}\leq \frac{m\omega}{2\pi} \left(1+\frac{54.8\log(2m)}{m-\frac{1}2}\right). \] The lower estimates use the deformation-to-the-tangent-space form of the Ohsawa--Takegoshi theorem established by He, Wang, and the author, whereas the upper bound combines a weighted submean inequality with quantitative isothermal coordinates which was obtained in recent work by Eilat.
For every $n\geq 3$, we construct a nonconstant real-valued function $U\in C^\infty(\overline{\mathbb R^n_+})$, harmonic in the upper half-space, whose complete boundary jet vanishes on a compact nowhere dense subset of $\partial\mathbb R^n_+$ of positive $(n-1)$-dimensional measure. The essential construction takes place in two dimensions and yields the case $n=3$; higher-dimensional examples follow by cylindrical lifting. In every dimension, the exceptional set may occupy an arbitrarily large proportion of a fixed boundary cube. This resolves, in the negative, the smooth case of the boundary unique-continuation problem left open by Bourgain and Wolff in 1990 \cite[p.~260]{BourgainWolff1990}. In dimension three, a M\"obius--Kelvin transfer gives the corresponding counterexample in the unit ball. It disproves Nadirashvili's smooth unit-ball conjecture on boundary singular sets \cite[Conjecture~4, p.~232]{Nadirashvili1997} and, a fortiori, disproves the gradient-only formulation subsequently recorded by Logunov and Malinnikova \cite[Section~7.4]{LogunovMalinnikova2020} and by Lin \cite[Conjecture~3, pp.~15--16]{Lin2020Current}. The proof uncovers a hidden flexibility principle for nonlocal elliptic equations: microscopic modifications can exert macroscopic control over exterior data. A quantitative correction mechanism for the half-Laplacian, iterated across scales, produces flat nonlocal Cauchy data on a set of positive measure. Thus nonlocality has a striking dual character: the same long-range interaction that drives unique-continuation rigidity can also furnish the flexibility through which that rigidity fails in the smooth category.