A metric analogue of Hartogs’ theorem

Abstract

In this paper we prove a metric version of Hartogs’ theorem where the holomorphic function is replaced by a locally symmetric Hermitian metric. As an application, we prove that if the Kobayashi metric on a strongly pseudoconvex domain with \({\mathcal {C}}^2\) smooth boundary is a Kähler metric, then the universal cover of the domain is the unit ball.