Oka manifolds: From Oka to Stein and back

Oka theory has its roots in the classical Oka-Grauert principle whose main result is Grauert's classification of principal holomorphic fiber bundles over Stein spaces. Modern Oka theory concerns holomorphic maps from Stein manifolds and Stein spaces to Oka manifolds. It has emerged as a subfield of complex geometry in its own right since the appearance of a seminal paper of M. Gromov in 1989. In this expository paper we discuss Oka manifolds and Oka maps. We describe equivalent characterizations of Oka manifolds, the functorial properties of this class, and geometric sufficient conditions for being Oka, the most important of which is Gromov's ellipticity. We survey the current status of the theory in terms of known examples of Oka manifolds, mention open problems and outline the proofs of the main results. In the appendix by F. Larusson it is explained how Oka manifolds and Oka maps, along with Stein manifolds, fit into an abstract homotopy-theoretic framework. The article is an expanded version of the lectures given by the author at the Winter School KAWA-4 in Toulouse, France, in January 2013. A more comprehensive exposition of Oka theory is available in the monograph F. Forstneric, Stein Manifolds and Holomorphic Mappings (The Homotopy Principle in Complex Analysis), Ergebnisse der Mathematik und ihrer Grenzgebiete, 3. Folge, 56, Springer-Verlag, Berlin-Heidelberg (2011).Comment: With an appendix by Finnur Larusson. To appear in Ann. Fac. Sci. Toulouse Math. (6), vol. 22, no. 4. This version is identical with the published tex

Runge approximation on convex sets implies the Oka property

We prove that the classical Oka property of a complex manifold Y, concerning the existence and homotopy classification of holomorphic mappings from Stein manifolds to Y, is equivalent to a Runge approximation property for holomorphic maps from compact convex sets in Euclidean spaces to Y.Comment: To appear in the Annals of Mat

Extending holomorphic mappings from subvarieties in Stein manifolds

Suppose that Y is a complex manifold with the property that any holomorphic map from a compact convex set in a complex Euclidean space C^n (for any n) to Y is a uniform limit of entire maps from C^n to Y. We prove that a holomorphic map from a closed complex subvariety X_0 in a Stein manifold X to the manifold Y extends to a holomorphic map of X to Y provided that it extends to a continuous map. We then establish the equivalence of four Oka-type properties of a complex manifold. We also generalize a theorem of Siu and Demailly on the existence of open Stein neighborhoods of Stein subvarieties in complex spaces.Comment: Ann. Inst. Fourier, to appea

Noncritical holomorphic functions on Stein spaces

We prove that every reduced Stein space admits a holomorphic function without critical points. Furthermore, any closed discrete subset of such a space is the critical locus of a holomorphic function. We also show that for every complex analytic stratification with nonsingular strata on a reduced Stein space there exists a holomorphic function whose restriction to every stratum is noncritical. These result also provide some information on critical loci of holomorphic functions on desingularizations of Stein spaces. In particular, every 1-convex manifold admits a holomorphic function that is noncritical outside the exceptional variety.Comment: To appear in J. Eur. Math. Soc. (JEMS

Holomorphic flexibility properties of complex manifolds

We obtain results on approximation of holomorphic maps by algebraic maps, jet transversality theorems for holomorphic and algebraic maps, and the homotopy principle for holomorphic submersions of Stein manifolds to certain algebraic manifolds.Comment: To appear in Amer. J. Mat