Convexity, plurisubharmonicity and the strong maximum modulus principle in Banach spaces

Abstract

In this article, we first try to make the known analogy between convexity and plurisubharmonicity more precise. Then we introduce a notion of strict plurisubharmonicity analogous to strict convexity, and we show how this notion can be used to study the strong maximum modulus principle in Banach spaces. As an application, we define a notion of $L^p$ direct integral of a family of Banach spaces, which includes at once Bochner $L^p$ spaces, $\ell^p$ direct sums and Hilbert direct integrals, and we show that under suitable hypotheses, when $p < \infty$, an $L^p$ direct integral satisfies the strong maximum modulus principle if and only if almost all members of the family do. This statement can be considered as a rewording of several known results, but the notion of strict plurisubharmonicity yields a new proof of it, which has the advantage of being short, enlightening and unified.