Comparison principle, stochastic completeness and half-space theorems

Abstract

We present a criterion for the stochastic completeness of a submanifold in terms of its distance to a hypersurface in the ambient space. This relies in a suitable version of the Hessian comparison theorem. In the sequel we apply a comparison principle with geometric barriers for establishing mean curvature estimates for stochastically complete submanifolds in Riemannian products, Riemannian submersions and wedges. These estimates are applied for obtaining both horizontal and vertical half-space theorems for submanifolds in $\mathbb{H}^n \times \mathbb{R}^\ell$.