Calabi–Bernstein Results and Parabolicity of Maximal Surfaces in Lorentzian Product Spaces

Abstract

A maximal surface in a 3-dimensional Lorentzian manifold is a space-like surface with zero mean curvature. One of the most relevant results in the context of global geometry of maximal surfaces is the well-known Calabi–Bernstein theorem, which states that the only entire maximal graphs in the 3-dimensional Lorentz–Minkowski space, \({\mathbb{R}}_{1}^{3}\), are the space-like planes. This result can also be formulated in a parametric version, stating that the only complete maximal surfaces in \({\mathbb{R}}_{1}^{3}\) are the space-like planes. In this chapter, we review about the Calabi–Bernstein theorem, summarizing some of the different extensions and generalizations of it made by several authors in recent years, and describing also some recent results obtained by the authors for maximal surfaces immersed in Lorentzian product spaces.