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On defining functions for unbounded pseudoconvex domains

We show that every strictly pseudoconvex domain $Ω$ with smooth boundary in a complex manifold $\mathcal{M}$ admits a global defining function, i.e., a smooth plurisubharmonic function $φ\colon U \to \mathbb R$ defined on an open neighbourhood $U \subset \mathcal{M}$ of $\overlineΩ$ such that $Ω= \{φ< 0\}$, $dφ\neq 0$ on $bΩ$ and $φ$ is strictly plurisubharmonic near $bΩ$. We then introduce the notion of the core $\mathfrak{c}(Ω)$ of an arbitrary domain $Ω\subset \mathcal{M}$ as the set of all points where every smooth and bounded from above plurisubharmonic function on $Ω$ fails to be strictly plurisubharmonic. If $Ω$ is not relatively compact in $\mathcal{M}$, then in general $\mathfrak{c}(Ω)$ is nonempty, even in the case when $\mathcal{M}$ is Stein. It is shown that every strictly pseudoconvex domain $Ω\subset \mathcal{M}$ with smooth boundary admits a global defining function that is strictly plurisubharmonic precisely in the complement of $\mathfrak{c}(Ω)$. We then investigate properties of the core. Among other results we prove 1-pseudoconcavity of the core, we show that in general the core does not possess an analytic structure, and we investigate Liouville type properties of the core.