Geometric barriers for the existence of hypersurfaces with prescribed curvatures in M^ntimes R

We show the existence of a deformation process of hypersurfaces from a product space $M_1\times R$ into another product space $M_2\times R$ such that the relation of the principal curvatures of the deformed hypersurfaces can be controlled in terms of the sectional curvatures or Ricci curvatures of $M_1$ and $M_2$. In this way, we obtain barriers which are used for proving existence or non existence of hypersurfaces with prescribed curvatures in a general product space $M\times R$.