Complex tangential flows and compactness of the $\bar{\partial}$- Neumann operator

Abstract

We provide geometric conditions on the set of boundary points of infinite type of a smooth bounded pseudoconvex domain in $\mathbb{C}^{n}$ which imply that the $\bar{\partial}$-Neumann operator is compact. These conditions are formulated in terms of certain short time flows in suitable complex tangential directions. It is noteworthy that compactness is \emph{not} established via the known potential theoretic sufficient conditions. Our results generalize to $\mathbb{C}^{n}$ the corresponding $\mathbb C^{2}$ results due to the second author.