We study the boundary behavior of nonnegative p-harmonic functions which vanish on a portion of the boundary of a domain in the Heisenberg group H^n. Our main results are: 1) An estimate from above which shows that, under suitable geometric assumptions on the relevant domain, such a p-harmonic function vanishes at most linearly with respect to the sub-Riemannian distance to the boundary. 2) An estimate from below which shows that for a (Euclidean) C^{1,1} domain, away from the characteristic set, such a p-harmonic function vanishes exactly like the distance to the boundary. By combining 1) and 2) we obtain a comparison theorem stating that, at least away from the characteristic set, any two such p-harmonic functions must vanish at the same rate.
We present a proof of the local Hölder regularity of the horizontal derivatives of weak solutions to the $p$-Laplace equation in the Heisenberg group $\mathbb{H}^1$ for $p>4 $.
Let $1<p\le4$ when $n=1$ and $1<p< 3+\frac{1}{n-1} $ when $n\ge2$. We obtain the second-order horizontal Sobolev $HW^{2,2}_{\rm loc} $-regularity of $p$-harmonic functions in the Heisenberg group $\mathbb H^n$. This improves the known range of $p$ obtained by Domokos and Manfredi in 2005.
We characterize $p-$harmonic functions in the Heisenberg group in terms of an asymptotic mean value property, where $1<p<\infty$, following the scheme described in Manfredi et al. (2009) for the Euclidean case. The new tool that allows us to consider the subelliptic case is a geometric lemma, Lemma 3.2 below, that relates the directions of the points of maxima and minima of a function on a small subelliptic ball with the unit horizontal gradient of that function.
In this note we present a notion of harmonic oscillator on the Heisenberg group $\mathbf{H}_n$ which forms the natural analogue of the harmonic oscillator on $\mathbb{R}^n$ under a few reasonable assumptions: the harmonic oscillator on $\mathbf{H}_n$ should be a negative sum of squares of operators related to the sub-Laplacian on $\mathbf{H}_n$, essentially self-adjoint with purely discrete spectrum, and its eigenvectors should be smooth functions and form an orthonormal basis of $L^2(\mathbf{H}_n)$. This approach leads to a differential operator on $\mathbf{H}_n$ which is determined by the (s…
We study the polyharmonic Neumann and mixed boundary value problems on the Korányi ball in the Heisenberg group $\H_n$. Necessary and sufficient solvability conditions are obtained for the nonhomogeneous polyharmonic Neumann problem and Neumann-Dirichlet boundary value problems.
Existence and uniqueness of the solution of the Neumann problem for the Kohn-Laplacian on the Korányi ball of the Heisenberg group $\mathbb{H}_n$ are discussed. Explicit representations of Green's type function (Neumann function) for the half space and Korányi ball in $\mathbb{H}_n$ for circular functions have been obtained. These functions are then used on above regions in $\mathbb{H}_n$ to solve the inhomogeneous Neumann boundary value problem for circular data.
In this paper we study singular integrals on small (that is, measure zero and lower than full dimensional) subsets of metric groups. The main examples of the groups we have in mind are Euclidean spaces and Heisenberg groups. In addition to obtaining results in a very general setting, the purpose of this work is twofold; we shall extend some results in Euclidean spaces to more general kernels than previously considered, and we shall obtain in Heisenberg groups some applications to harmonic (in the Heisenberg sense) functions of some results known earlier in Euclidean spaces.
In this paper we prove uniform convergence of approximations to $p$-harmonic functions by using natural $p$-mean operators on bounded domains of the Heisenberg group $\mathbb{H}$ which satisfy an intrinsic exterior corkscrew condition. These domains include Euclidean $C^{1,1}$ domains.
We prove a Hardy-type inequality for the gradient of the Heisenberg Laplacian on open bounded convex polytopes on the first Heisenberg Group. The integral weight of the Hardy inequality is given by the distance function to the boundary measured with respect to the Carnot-Carathéodory metric. The constant depends on the number of hyperplanes, given by the boundary of the convex polytope, which are not orthogonal to the hyperplane $x_3=0$.
We study the mean value properties of $\mathbf{p}$-harmonic functions on the first Heisenberg group $\mathbb{H}$, in connection to the dynamic programming principles of certain stochastic processes. We implement the approach of Peres-Scheffield to provide the game-theoretical interpretation of the sub-elliptic $\mathbf{p}$-Laplacian; and of Manfredi-Parviainen-Rossi to characterize its viscosity solutions via the asymptotic mean value expansions.
The aim of this article is the explicit construction of some barrier functions ("fundamental solutions") for the Pucci-Heisenberg operators. Using these functions we obtain the continuity property, up to the boundary, for the viscosity solution of fully non-linear Dirichlet problems on the Heisenberg group, if the boundary of the domain satisfies some regularity geometrical assumptions (e.g. an exterior Heisenberg-ball condition at the characteristic points). We point out that the knowledge of the fundamental solutions allows also to obtain qualitative properties of Hadamard, Liouville and Har…
We extend to the parabolic setting some of the ideas originated with Xiao Zhong's proof in \cite{Zhong} of the Hölder regularity of $p-$harmonic functions in the Heisenberg group $\Hn$. Given a number $p\ge 2$, in this paper we establish the $C^{\infty}$ smoothness of weak solutions of quasilinear pde's in $\Hn$ modelled on the equation $$\p_t u= \sum_{i=1}^{2n} X_i \bigg((1+|\nabla_0 u|^2)^{\frac{p-2}{2}} X_i u\bigg).$$
We construct N-harmonic functions in a domain with one isolated singularity on the boundary of the domain. By using solutions of the spherical p-harmonic spectral problem, we give an inductive method to produce a large variety of separable p-harmonic functions.
We prove a quantification result for harmonic maps with free boundary from arbitrary Riemannian surfaces into the unit ball of ${\mathbb R}^{n+1}$ with bounded energy. This generalizes results obtained by Da Lio on the disc.
In this note we show that gradient of Harmonic functions on a smooth domain with Lipschitz boundary values is pointwise bounded by a universal function which is in $L^p$ for all finite $p\geq 1$.
Error estimates for approximations of harmonic functions on planar regions by subspaces spanned by the first harmonic Steklov eigenfunctions are found. They are based on the explicit representation of harmonic functions in terms of these harmonic Steklov eigenfunctions. When the region is a rectangle of aspect ratio h, some computational results regarding these approximations for problems with known explicit solutions are described.
This paper is devoted to the derivation of $L^2$ - $L^2$ decay estimates for the solution of the homogeneous linear damped wave equation on the Heisenberg group $\mathbf{H}_n$, for its time derivative and for its horizontal gradient. Moreover, we consider the improvement of these estimates when further $L^1(\mathbf{H}_n)$ regularity is required for the Cauchy data. Our approach will rely strongly on the group Fourier transform of $\mathbf{H}_n$ and on the properties of the Hermite functions that form a maximal orthonormal system for $L^2(\mathbb{R}^n)$ of eigenfunctions of the harmonic oscilla…
We investigate various boundary decay estimates for $p(\cdot)$-harmonic functions. For domains in $\mathbb{R}^n, n\geq 2$ satisfying the ball condition ($C^{1,1}$-domains) we show the boundary Harnack inequality for $p(\cdot)$-harmonic functions under the assumption that the variable exponent $p$ is a bounded Lipschitz function. The proof involves barrier functions and chaining arguments. Moreover, we prove a Carleson type estimate for $p(\cdot)$-harmonic functions in NTA domains in $\mathbb{R}^n$ and provide lower- and upper- growth estimates and a doubling property for a $p(\cdot)$-harmonic …
In this paper we solve a problem raised by Gutiérrez and Montanari about comparison principles for $H-$convex functions on subdomains of Heisenberg groups. Our approach is based on the notion of the sub-Riemannian horizontal normal mapping and uses degree theory for set-valued maps. The statement of the comparison principle combined with a Harnack inequality is applied to prove the Aleksandrov-type maximum principle, describing the correct boundary behavior of continuous $H-$convex functions vanishing at the boundary of horizontally bounded subdomains of Heisenberg groups. This result answers …
We study a 2-phase free boundary problem for harmonic measure first considered by Kenig and Toro and prove a sharp Hölder regularity result. The central difficulty is that there is no a priori non-degeneracy in the free boundary condition. Thus we must establish non-degeneracy by means of monotonicity formulae.
In this paper, we give a harmonic analysis proof of the Neumann boundary observability inequality for the wave equation in an arbitrary space dimension. Our proof is elementary in nature and gives a simple, explicit constant. We also extend the method to prove the observability inequality of a visco-elastic wave equation.
The theory of boundary regularity for $p$-harmonic functions is extended to unbounded open sets in complete metric spaces with a doubling measure supporting a $p$-Poincaré inequality, $1<p<\infty$. The barrier classification of regular boundary points is established, and it is shown that regularity is a local property of the boundary. We also obtain boundary regularity results for solutions of the obstacle problem on open sets, and characterize regularity further in several other ways.
The trichotomy between regular, semiregular, and strongly irregular boundary points for $p$-harmonic functions is obtained for unbounded open sets in complete metric spaces with a doubling measure supporting a $p$-Poincaré inequality, $1<p<\infty$. We show that these are local properties. We also deduce several characterizations of semiregular points and strongly irregular points. In particular, semiregular points are characterized by means of capacity, $p$-harmonic measures, removability, and semibarriers.
We study the obstacle problem related to a wide class of nonlinear integro-differential operators, whose model is the fractional subLaplacian in the Heisenberg group. We prove both the existence and uniqueness of the solution, and that solutions inherit regularity properties of the obstacle such as boundedness, continuity and Hölder continuity up to the boundary. We also prove some independent properties of weak supersolutions to the class of problems we are dealing with. Armed with the aforementioned results, we finally investigate the Perron-Wiener-Brelot generalized solution by proving its …
In this note we construct an integral boundary condition for the Kohn Laplacian in a given domain on the Heisenberg group extending to the setting of the Heisenberg group M. Kac's "principle of not feeling the boundary". This also amounts to finding the trace on smooth surfaces of the Newton potential associated to the Kohn Laplacian. We also obtain similar results for higher powers of the Kohn Laplacian.
We examine the geometry of the level sets of particular horizontally $p$-harmonic functions in the Heisenberg group. We find sharp, natural geometric conditions ensuring that the level sets of the $p$-capacitary potential of a bounded annulus in the Heisenberg group are strictly starshaped.
We prove that a strictly stable minimal $C^2_h$ intrinsic graph G is locally area-minimizing, i.e. given any $C^1_h$ graph $S$ with the same boundary, $\text{Area}(G)<\text{Area}(S)$ unless $G=S$. As a consequence we show the existence and the uniqueness of $C^\infty$ minimal graphs with prescribed small boundary datum.
We study various notions of the Schwarzian derivative for contact mappings in the Heisenberg group $\mathbb{H}_1$ and introduce two definitions: (1) the CR Schwarzian derivative based on the conformal connection approach studied by Osgood and Stowe and, recently, by Son; (2) the classical type Schwarzian refering to the well-known complex analytic definition. In particular, we take into consideration the effect of conformal rigidity and the limitations it imposes. Moreover, we study the kernels of both Schwarzians and the cocycle conditions. Our auxiliary results include a characterization of …
We introduce a heat flow associated to half-harmonic maps, which have been introduced by Da Lio and Rivière. Those maps exhibit integrability by compensation in one space dimension and are related to harmonic maps with free boundary. We consider a new flow associated to these harmonic maps with free boundary which is actually motivated by a rather unusual heat flow for half-harmonic maps. We construct then weak solutions and prove their partial regularity in space and time via a Ginzburg-Landau approximation. The present paper complements the study initiated by Struwe and Chen-Lin.
We establish the regularity theory for certain critical elliptic systems with an anti-symmetric structure under inhomogeneous Neumann and Dirichlet boundary constraints. As applications, we prove full regularity and smooth estimates at the free boundary for weakly Dirac-harmonic maps from spin Riemann surfaces. Our methods also lead to the full interior $ε$-regularity and smooth estimates for weakly Dirac-harmonic maps in all dimensions.
We study boundary value problems for harmonic functions on certain domains in the level-$l$ Sierpinski gaskets $\mathcal{SG}_l$($l\geq 2$) whose boundaries are Cantor sets. We give explicit analogues of the Poisson integral formula to recover harmonic functions from their boundary values. Three types of domains, the left half domain of $\mathcal{SG}_l$ and the upper and lower domains generated by horizontal cuts of $\mathcal{SG}_l$ are considered at present. We characterize harmonic functions of finite energy and obtain their energy estimates in terms of their boundary values. This paper settl…
We study existence and structure of $P-$area minimizing surfaces in the Heisenberg group under Dirichlet and Neumann boundary conditions. We show that there exists an underlying vector field $N$ that characterized existence and structure of $P$-area minimizing surfaces. This vector field exists even if there is no $P$-area minimizing surface satisfying the prescribed boundary conditions. We prove that if $\partial Ω$ satisfies a so called Barrier condition, it is sufficient to guarantee existence of such surfaces. Our approach is completely different from previous methods in the literature and…
We study Riesz means of the eigenvalues of the Heisenberg Laplacian with Dirichlet boundary conditions on bounded domains. We obtain an inequality with a sharp leading term and an additional lower order term, improving the result of Hanson and Laptev.
We give a complete description of the boundary behaviour of the Poisson kernel and the harmonic Bergman kernel of a bounded domain with smooth boundary, which in some sense is an analogue of the similar description for the usual Bergman kernel on a strictly pseudoconvex domain due to Fefferman. Our main tool is the Boutet de Monvel calculus of pseudodifferential boundary operators, and in fact we describe the boundary singularity of a general potential, trace or singular Green operator from that calculus.
