Bergman metric on a Stein manifold with nonpositive constant holomorphic sectional curvature

Abstract: We prove that the Bergman space of a Stein manifold separates points whenever its Bergman metric is well defined and has non-positive constant holomorphic sectional curvature. This, combined with earlier proved results, shows that a Stein manifold cannot admit a well-defined flat Bergman metric, and that it has a well-defined Bergman metric with negative constant holomorphic sectional curvature if and only if it is biholomorphic to the unit ball of the same dimension possibly with a pluripolar set removed. The proof is based on the Hormander L2-estimate for d-bar equations; and the curvature condition together with Calabi's rigidity and extension theorems is used to construct the required bounded strictly plurisubharmonic functions.