A Cheng-Yau type estimate for positive biharmonic functions

Abstract

We establish a Cheng-Yau type estimate for positive biharmonic functions on complete Riemannian manifolds with Ricci curvature satisfies $Ric_g \ge -(n-1)K g$. If $u$ is a positive biharmonic function in $B_{2R}(p)$, then $$ -\frac{\Delta_g u}{u} +\frac{1}{8n}\frac{|\nabla u|_g^2}{u^2} \le C_n\left(R^{-2}+K\right) \quad\text{on }B_R(p). $$ Further, if the Ricci curvature is nonnegative, every global positive biharmonic function satisfies $\Delta_g u\equiv c$ and the sharp estimate $|\nabla u|_g^2\le2cu$ for some nonnegative constant $c$. We also show that every positive $k$-polyharmonic function has nonnegative constant $(k-1)$-st Laplacian and growth of order at most $2k-2$.