We prove that, in the first Heisenberg group $\mathbb{H}$, an entire locally Lipschitz intrinsic graph admitting vanishing first variation of its sub-Riemannian area and non-negative second variation must be an intrinsic plane, i.e., a coset of a two dimensional subgroup of $\mathbb{H}$. Moreover two examples are given for stressing result's sharpness.
In this note we present a short alternative proof for the Bernstein problem in the three-dimensional Heisenberg group ${\rm Nil}_3$ by using the loop group technique.
We classify the entire minimal vertical graphs in the 3 dimensional Heisenberg group Nil endowed with a Riemannian left-invariant metric. This classification, which provides a solution to the Bernstein problem in Nil, is given in terms of the Abresch-Rosenberg holomorphic differential for minimal surfaces in Nil.
We establish the following theorem of Bernstein type for the first Heisenberg group: Let S be a C^2 connected H-minimal surface which is a graph over some plane P, then S is either a non-characteristic vertical plane, or its generalized seed curve satisfies a type of constant curvature condition.
We prove that in the Heisenberg group $\mathbb{H}^1$ with a sub-Finsler structure, an $(X,Y)$-Lipschitz surface which is complete, oriented, connected and stable must be a vertical plane. In particular, the result holds for entire intrinsic graphs of Euclidean Lipschitz functions.
Let S be a C^2 H-minimal noncharacteristic hypersurface in the first Heisenberg group. We show that if S contains a graphical strip, then it is not a stable minimal surface. Moreover, we show that if S is a C^2 H-minimal noncharacteristic entire graph which is not itself a vertical plane, then S contains a graphical strip. Thus, as a corollary, we obtain an analogue of the Bernstein theorem: the only stable C^2 H-minimal noncharacteristic entire graphs are the vertical planes.
We prove that Lipschitz intrinsic graphs in the Heisenberg groups $H^n$, with $n>1$, which are vanishing viscosity solutions of the minimal surface equation are smooth.
In this paper we provide a characterization of intrinsic Lipschitz graphs in the sub-Riemannian Heisenberg groups in terms of their distributional gradients. Moreover, we prove the equivalence of different notions of continuous weak solutions to the equation ϕ_y+ [ϕ^{2}/2]_t=w, where w is a bounded function depending on ϕ.
We prove an almost monotonicity formula for H-minimal Legendrian Surfaces (also called {\it contact stationary legendrian immersions}) in the Heisenberg Group ${\mathbb H}^2$ . From this formula we deduce a Bernstein-Liouville type theorem for H-minimal Legendrian Surfaces. This last result happens to be in particular a central ingredient in the analysis part of the proof of the Willmore conjecture given by the author in arXiv:2007.05467
Let $\H^n$ be the Heisenberg group of topological dimension $2n+1$. We prove that if $n$ is odd, the pair of metric spaces $(\H^n, \H^n)$ does not have the Lipschitz extension property.
We prove a quantitative bi-Lipschitz nonembedding theorem for the Heisenberg group with its Carnot-Carathéodory metric and apply it to give a lower bound on the integrality gap of the Goemans-Linial semidefinite relaxation of the Sparsest Cut problem.
We focus our attention on the notion of intrinsic Lipschitz graphs, inside a subclass of Carnot groups of step 2 which includes a corank 1 Carnot groups (and so the Heisenberg groups), Free groups of step 2 and the complexified Heisenberg group. More precisely, we prove the equivalence between intrinsic Lipschitz map and a weak solution to a suitable non linear first order PDE system, which generalizes Lagrangian solution in the context of Heisenberg groups.
We define holomorphic quadratic differentials for spacelike surfaces with constant mean curvature in the Lorentzian homogeneous spaces $\mathbb{L}(κ,τ)$ with isometry group of dimension 4, which are dual to the Abresch-Rosenberg differentials in the Riemannian counterparts $\mathbb{E}(κ,τ)$, and obtain some consequences. On the one hand, we give a very short proof of the Bernstein problem in Heisenberg space, and provide a geometric description of the family of entire graphs sharing the same differential in terms of a 2-parameter conformal deformation. On the other hand, we prove that entire m…
For a strictly convex set $K\subset \mathbb{R}^2$ of class $C^2$ we consider its associated sub-Finsler $K$-perimeter $|\partial E|_K$ in $\mathbb{H}^1$ and the prescribed mean curvature functional $|\partial E|_K-\int_E f$ associated to a function $f$. Given a critical set for this functional with Euclidean Lipschitz and intrinsic regular boundary, we prove that their characteristic curves are of class $C^2$ and that this regularity is optimal. The result holds in particular when the boundary of $E$ is of class $C^1$.
We consider the mean curvature flow of entire Lagrangian graphs with Lipschitz continuous initial data. Assuming only a certain bound on the Lipschitz norm of an initial entire Lagrangian graph in $\R^{2n}$, we show that the parabolic equation \eqref{PMA} for the Lagrangian potential has a longtime solution which is smooth for all positive time and satisfies uniform estimates away from time $t=0$. In particular, under the mean curvature flow the graph immediately becomes smooth and the solution exists for all time such that the second fundamental form decays uniformly to 0 on the graph as $t\t…
We give a geometric criterion for a topological surface in the first Heisenberg group to be an intrinsic Lipschitz graph, using planar cones instead of the usual open cones.
We give new examples of entire area-minimizing t-graphs in the subriemannian Heisenberg group H^1. Most of the examples are locally lipschitz in Euclidean sense. Some regular examples have prescribed singular set consisting of either a horizontal line or a finite number of horizontal halflines extending from a given point. Amongst them, a large family of area-minimizing cones is obtained.
We consider surfaces of class $C^1$ in the $3$-dimensional sub-Riemannian Heisenberg group ${\mathbb H}^1$. Assuming the surface is area-stationary, i.e., a critical point of the sub-Riemannian perimeter under compactly supported variations, we show that its regular part is foliated by horizontal straight lines. In case the surface is complete and oriented, without singular points, and stable, i.e., a second order minimum of perimeter, we prove that the surface must be a vertical plane. This implies the following Bernstein type result: a complete locally area-minimizing intrinsic graph of a $C…
Minimal surfaces in $\mathbb{R}^n$ can be locally approximated by graphs of harmonic functions, i.e., functions that are critical points of the Dirichlet energy, but no analogous theorem is known for $H$-minimal surfaces in the three-dimensional Heisenberg group $\mathbb{H}$, which are known to have singularities. In this paper, we introduce a definition of intrinsic Dirichlet energy for surfaces in $\mathbb{H}$ and study the critical points of this energy, which we call contact harmonic graphs. Nearly flat regions of $H$-minimal surfaces can often be approximated by such graphs. We give a cal…
Minimal surfaces in the sub-Riemannian Heisenberg group can be constructed by means of a Riemannian approximation scheme, as limit of Riemannian minimal surfaces. We study the regularity of Lipschitz, non-characteristic minimal surfaces which arise as such limits. Our main results are a-priori estimates on the solutions of the approximating Riemannian PDE and the ensuing $C^{\infty}$ regularity of the sub-Riemannian minimal surface along its Legendrian foliation.
This paper studies the geometry of bilipschitz maps $f \colon \mathbb{W} \to \mathbb{H}$, where $\mathbb{H}$ is the first Heisenberg group, and $\mathbb{W} \subset \mathbb{H}$ is a vertical subgroup of co-dimension $1$. The images $f(\mathbb{W})$ of such maps are called Rickman rugs in the Heisenberg group. The main theorem states that a Rickman rug in the Heisenberg group admits a corona decomposition by intrinsic bilipschitz graphs. As a corollary, Rickman rugs are countably rectifiable by intrinsic bilipschitz graphs. Here, an intrinsic bilipschitz graph is an intrinsic Lipschitz graph, whi…
This is one of a series of papers examining the interplay between differentiation theory for Lipschitz maps, X-->V, and bi-Lipschitz nonembeddability, where X is a metric measure space and V is a Banach space. Here, we consider the case V=L^1 where differentiability fails. We establish another kind of differentiability for certain X, including R^n and H, the Heisenberg group with its Carnot-Cartheodory metric. It follows that H does not bi-Lipschitz embed into L^1, as conjectured by J. Lee and A. Naor. When combined with their work, this provides a natural counter example to the Goemans-Linial…
We give a new approach to the infinitesimal structure of Lipschitz maps into L^1. As a first application, we give an alternative proof of the main theorem from an earlier paper, that the Heisenberg group does not admit a bi-Lipschitz embedding in L^1. The proof uses the metric differentiation theorem of Pauls and the cut metric decomposition to reduce the nonembedding argument to a classification of monotone subsets of the Heisenberg group.
We show that a map with Hölder exponent bigger than $1/2$ from a quasi-convex metric space with vanishing first Lipschitz homology into the Sub-Riemannian Heisenberg group factors through a tree. In particular, if the domain contains a disk, such a map can't be injective. This gives an answer to a question of Gromov for the simplest nontrivial case. The same tools allow to improve on a result of Borisov and it is shown that an isometric immersion of class $C^{1,α}$ of a Riemannian surface with positive Gauss curvature into $\mathbb{R}^3$ has bounded extrinsic curvature if $α> 1/2$.
In Euclidean $3$-space, it is well known that the Sine-Gordon equation was considered in the nineteenth century in the course of investigations of surfaces of constant Gaussian curvature $K=-1$. Such a surface can be constructed from a solution to the Sine-Gordon equation, and vice versa. With this as motivation, employing the fundamental theorem of surfaces in the Heisenberg group $H_{1}$, we show in this paper that the existence of a constant $p$-mean curvature surface (without singular points) is equivalent to the existence of a solution to a nonlinear second-order ODE (1.2), which is a kin…
We study left-invariant distances on Lie groups for which there exists a one-parameter family of homothetic automorphisms. The main examples are Carnot groups, in particular the Heisenberg group with the standard dilations. We are interested in criteria implying that, locally and away from the diagonal, the distance is Euclidean Lipschitz and, consequently, that the metric spheres are boundaries of Lipschitz domains in the Euclidean sense. In the first part of the paper, we consider geodesic distances. In this case, we actually prove the regularity of the distance in the more general context o…
We use variational arguments to introduce a notion of mean curvature for surfaces in the Heisenberg group H^1 endowed with its Carnot-Carathéodory distance. By analyzing the first variation of area, we characterize C^2 stationary surfaces for the area as those with mean curvature zero (or constant if a volume-preserving condition is assumed) and such that the characteristic curves meet orthogonally the singular curves. Moreover, a Minkowski type formula relating the area, the mean curvature, and the volume is obtained for volume-preserving area-stationary surfaces enclosing a given region. As …
In the present article, we combine some techniques in the harmonic analysis together with the geometric approach given by modules over sheaves of rings of twisted differential operators ($\mathcal{D}$-modules), and reformulate the composition series and branching problems for objects in the Bernstein-Gelfand-Gelfand parabolic category $\mathcal{O}^\mathfrak{p}$ geometrically realized on certain orbits in the generalized flag manifolds. The general framework is then applied to the scalar generalized Verma modules supported on the closed Schubert cell of the generalized flag manifold $G/P$ for $…
Two definitions for the rectfiability of hypersurfaces in Heisenberg groups $\mathbb{H}^n$ have been proposed: one based on $\mathbb{H}$-regular surfaces, and the other on Lipschitz images of subsets of codimension-$1$ vertical subgroups. The equivalence between these notions remains an open problem. Recent partial results are due to Cole-Pauls, Bigolin-Vittone, and Antonelli-Le Donne. This paper makes progress in one direction: the metric Lipschitz rectifiability of $\mathbb{H}$-regular surfaces. We prove that $\mathbb{H}$-regular surfaces in $\mathbb{H}^{n}$ with $α$-Hölder continuous horizo…
This paper is related to the problem of finding a good notion of rectifiability in sub-Riemannian geometry. In particular, we study which kind of results can be expected for smooth hypersurfaces in Carnot groups. Our main contribution will be a consequence of the following result: there exists a $C^{\infty}$ hypersurface $S$ without characteristic points that has uncountably many pairwise non-isomorphic tangent groups on every positive-measure subset. The example is found in a Carnot group of topological dimension 8, it has Hausdorff dimension 12 and so we use on it the Hausdorff measure $\mat…