Holomorphic functions and embedded real surfaces

The paper is devoted to the study of necessary and sufficient topological conditions for an embedded real surface to lie in a strictly pseudoconvex domain on a complex surface. These results are used to construct Stein domains on algebraic manifolds and to describe envelopes of holomorphy of real surfaces in P ² and in some other complex surfaces.Translated fromMatematicheskie Zametki, Vol. 63, No. 4, pp. 599–606, April, 1998.The author is grateful to A. Vitushkin for the statement of the problem and for constant encouragement.This research was partially supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research under grant No. 96-01-01002 and by the International Science Foundation under grant No. a97-1850.