Interior Hessian estimates for Hessian quotient equations

Abstract

In this paper, we establish interior $C^2$ estimates for admissible semiconvex solutions to the general Hessian quotient equation $\frac{σ_k}{σ_l}(D^2u)=f(x,u),$ for the cases $l=k-1$ and $l=k-2$, where $f$ is a positive $C^2$ function. Such estimates are known to fail in general for $k-l\geq 3$, even for convex solutions, as shown by counterexamples due to Lu \cite{LuGeneral}. The main ingredient is a quantitative concavity inequality for the Hessian quotient operator under the semiconvex condition. Our result provides a unified argument to such general Hessian quotient equations for $2\leq k\leq n-1$ in arbitrary dimensions.