For about twenty five years it was a kind of folk theorem that complex vector-fields defined on $Ω\times \mathbb R_t$ (with $Ω$ open set in $\mathbb R^n$) by $$ L_j = \frac{\partial}{\partial t_j} + i \frac {\partial ϕ}{\partial t_j}(\t) \frac{\partial}{\partial x}, j=1,..., n, \t\in Ω, x\in \mathbb R ,$$ with $ϕ$ analytic, were subelliptic as soon as they were hypoelliptic. This was the case when $n=1$ but in the case $n>1$, an inaccurate reading of the proof given by Maire (see also Trèves) of the hypoellipticity of such systems, under the condition that $ϕ$ does not admit any local maximum or minimum (through a non standard subelliptic estimate), was supporting the belief for this folk theorem. Quite recently, J.L. Journé and J.M.Trépreau show by examples that there are very simple systems (with polynomial $ϕ$'s) which were hypoelliptic but not subelliptic in the standard $L^2$-sense. So it is natural to analyze this problem of subellipticity which is in some sense intermediate (at least when $ϕ$ is $C^\infty$) between the maximal hypoellipticity (which was analyzed by Helffer-Nourrigat and Nourrigat) and the simple local hypoellipticity (or local microhypoellipticity) and to start first with the easiest non trivial examples. The analysis presented here is a continuation of a previous work by the first author and is devoted to the case of quasihomogeneous functions.
We consider some system of complex vector fields related to the semi-classical Witten Laplacian, and establish the local subellipticity of this system basing on condition $(Ψ)$.
We discuss some estimates of subelliptic type related with vector fields satisfying the Hörmander condition. Our approach makes use of a class of approximate exponentials maps. Such kind of estimates arises naturally in the study of regularity theory of weak solutions of degenerate elliptic equations.
Given a Carnot-Carathéodory space $\Om \sub \R^n$ with associated vector fields $X=\{X_1,...,X_m\}$, we derive the subelliptic $\infty$-Laplace system for mappings $u : \Om \larrow \R^N$, which reads \[ \label{1} \De^X_\infty u \, :=\, \Big(Xu \ot Xu + \|Xu\|^2 [Xu]^\bot \ot I \Big) : XX u\, = \, 0 \tag{1} \] in the limit of the subelliptic $p$-Laplacian as $p\ri \infty$. Here $Xu$ is the horizontal gradient and $[Xu]^\bot$ is the projection on its nullspace. Next, we identify the Variational Principle characterizing \eqref{1}, which is the "Euler-Lagrange PDE" of the supremal functional \[ \l…
We aim at reviewing and extending a number of recent results addressing stability of certain geometric and analytic estimates in the Riemannian approximation of subRiemannian structures. In particular we extend the recent work of the the authors with Rea [19] and Manfredini [17] concerning stability of doubling properties, Poincaré inequalities, Gaussian estimates on heat kernels and Schauder estimates from the Carnot group setting to the general case of Hörmander vector fields.
In this note, we prove the finite ${(Q-1)}$-Hausdorff measure of the free boundary in the obstacle problem in a Carnot group $\mathbb{G}$. Here, $Q$ represents the homogeneous dimension of $\mathbb{G}$. Our main result, Theorem 1.1, constitutes the subelliptic counterpart of the Euclidean result due to Caffarelli, but the analysis is complicated by the lack of commutation of the left-invariant vector fields. This obstruction is compensated by the use of right-invariant derivatives, and by a delicate compactness argument inspired to Caffarelli's fundamental works.
Let the vector fields $X_1, ... , X_{6}$ form an orthonormal basis of ${\mathcal H}$, the orthogonal complement of a Cartan subalgebra (of dimension $2$) in SU(3). We prove that weak solutions $u$ to the degenerate subelliptic $p$-Laplacian $$ Δ_{\mathcal{H},{p}} u(x)=\sum_{i=1}^{6} X_i^{*}\left(|\nabla_{\hspace{-0.1cm} {\mathcal H}} u|^{p-2}X_{i}u \right) =0,$$ have Hölder continuous horizontal derivatives $\nabla_{\hspace{-0.1cm}{\mathcal H}} u=(X_1u, \ldots, X_{6}u)$ for $p\ge 2$. We also prove that a similar result holds for all compact connected semisimple Lie groups.
We study the regularity of Gevrey vectors for Hörmander operators $$ P = \sum_{j=1}^m X_j^2 + X_0 + c$$ where the $X_j$ are real vector fields and $c(x)$ is a smooth function, all in Gevrey class $G^{s}.$ The principal hypothesis is that $P$ satisfies the subelliptic estimate: for some $\varepsilon >0, \; \exists \,C$ such that $$\|v\|_\varepsilon^2 \leq C\left(|(Pv, v)| + \|v\|_0^2\right) \qquad \forall v\in C_0^\infty.$$ We prove directly (without the now familiar use of adding a variable $t$ and proving suitable hypoellipticity for $Q=-D_t^2-P$ and then, using the hypothesis on the iterates…
We consider subelliptic equations in non divergence form of the type $Lu = \sum a_{ij} X_jX_iu=0$, where $X_j$ are the Grushin vector fields, and the matrix coefficient is uniformly elliptic. We obtain a scale invariant Harnack's inequality on the $X_j$'s CC balls for nonnegative solutions under the only assumption that the ratio between the maximum and minimum eigenvalues of the coefficient matrix is bounded. In the paper we first prove a weighted Aleksandrov Bakelman Pucci estimate, and then we show a critical density estimate, the double ball property and the power decay property. Once this…
On a bounded domain $Ω$ in euclidean space $\mathbb{R}^n$, we study the homogeneous Dirichlet problem for the eikonal equation associated with a system of smooth vector fields, which satisfies Hörmander's bracket generating condition. We prove that the solution is smooth in the complement of a closed set of Lebesgue measure zero.
We show that divergence free vector fields which belong to L^1 on stratified, nilpotent groups are in the dual space of functions whose sub-gradient are L^Q integrable where Q is the homogeneous dimension of the group. This was first obtained on Euclidean space by Bourgain and Brezis.
Given a Carnot-Carathéodory metric space $(R^n, d_{\hbox{cc}})$ generated by vector fields $\{X_i\}_{i=1}^m$ satisfying Hörmander's condition, we prove in theorem A that any absolute minimizer $u\in W^{1,\infty}_{\hbox{cc}}(\Om)$ to $F(v,\Om)=\sup_{x\in\Om}f(x,Xv(x))$ is a viscosity solution to the Aronsson equation (1.6), under suitable conditions on $f$. In particular, any AMLE is a viscosity solution to the subelliptic $\infty$-Laplacian equation (1.7). If the Carnot-Carathédory space is a Carnot group ${\bf G}$ and $f$ is independent of $x$-variable, we establish in theorem C the uniquness…
Previous results on Hessian measures by Trudinger and Wang are extended to the subelliptic case. Specifically we prove the weak continuity of the 2-Hessian operator, with respect to local L1 convergence, for a system of m vector fields of step 2 and derive gradient estimates for the corresponding k-convex functions, k=1,2....m, for arbitrary step.
We assume that the manifold with boundary, X, has a Spin_C-structure with spinor bundle S. Along the boundary, this structure agrees with the structure defined by an infinite order integrable almost complex structure and the metric is Kahler. The induced CR-structure on bX is integrable and either strictly pseudoconvex or strictly pseudoconcave. We assume that E->X is a complex vector bundle, which has an infinite order integrable complex structure along bX, compatible with that defined along bX. In this paper use boundary layer methods to prove subelliptic estimates for the twisted Spin_C- Di…
We prove a subelliptic estimate for systems of complex vector fields under some assumptions that generalize the essential pseudoconcavity for $CR$ manifolds and Hörmander's bracket condition for real vector fields. Applications are given to prove the hypoellipticity of first order systems and second order partial differential operators. Finally we describe a class of compact homogeneous CR manifolds for which the distribution of $(0,1)$ vector fields satisfies a subelliptic estimate. v2: minor revision, to appear in Ann. Inst. Fourier
We establish a Harnack inequality for a class of quasi-linear PDE modeled on the prototype {equation*} \partial_tu= -\sum_{i=1}^{m}X_i^\ast (|\X u|^{p-2} X_i u){equation*} where $p\ge 2$, $ \ \X = (X_1,..., X_m)$ is a system of Lipschitz vector fields defined on a smooth manifold $\M$ endowed with a Borel measure $μ$, and $X_i^*$ denotes the adjoint of $X_i$ with respect to $μ$. Our estimates are derived assuming that (i) the control distance $d$ generated by $\X$ induces the same topology on $\M$; (ii) a doubling condition for the $μ$-measure of $d-$metric balls and (iii) the validity of a Po…
We introduce a notion of subunit vector field for fully nonlinear degenerate elliptic equations. We prove that an interior maximum of a viscosity subsolution of such an equation propagates along the trajectories of subunit vector fields. This implies strong maximum and minimum principles when the operator has a family of subunit vector fields satisfying the Hörmander condition. In particular these results hold for a large class of nonlinear subelliptic PDEs in Carnot groups. We prove also a strong comparison principle for degenerate elliptic equations that can be written in Hamilton-Jacobi-Bel…
We study the Dirichlet problem for subelliptic partial differential equations of Monge-Ampere type involving the derivates with respect to a family X of vector fields of Carnot type. The main result is a comparison principle among viscosity subsolutions, convex with respect to X, and viscosity supersolutions (in a weaker sense than usual), which implies the uniqueness of solution to the Dirichlet problem. Its assumptions include the equation of prescribed horizontal Gauss curvature in Carnot groups. By Perron method we also prove the existence of a solution either under a growth condition of t…
For each value of k, two complex vector fields satisfying the bracket condition are exhibited the sum of whose squares is hypoelliptic but not subelliptic - in fact the operator loses k-1 derivatives in Sobolev norms. In the Appendix it is proven that this operator is analytic hypoelliptic.
In this work we investigate the well-posedness for difussion equations associated to subelliptic pseudo-differential operators on compact Lie groups. The diffusion by strongly elliptic operators is considered as a special case and in particular the fractional diffusion with respect to the Laplacian. The general case is studied within the Hörmander classes associated to a sub-Riemannian structure on the group (encoded by a Hörmander system of vector fields). Applications to diffusion equations for fractional sub-Laplacians, fractional powers of more general subelliptic operators, and the corres…
As the classical $(p,q)$-Poincaré inequality is known to fail for $0 < p < 1$, we introduce the notion of weighted multilinear Poincaré inequality as a natural alternative when $m$-fold products and $1/m < p$ are considered. We prove such weighted multilinear Poincaré inequalities in the subelliptic context associated to vector fields of Hörmader type. We do so by establishing multilinear representation formulas and weighted estimates for multilinear potential operators in spaces of homogeneous type.
In a cylinder $Ω_T=Ω\times (0,T)\subset \R^{n+1}_+$ we study the boundary behavior of nonnegative solutions of second order parabolic equations of the form \[ Hu =\sum_{i,j=1}^ma_{ij}(x,t) X_iX_ju - \p_tu = 0, \ (x,t)\in\R^{n+1}_+, \] where $X=\{X_1,...,X_m\}$ is a system of $C^\infty$ vector fields in $\Rn$ satisfying Hörmander's finite rank condition \eqref{frc}, and $Ω$ is a non-tangentially accessible domain with respect to the Carnot-Carathéodory distance $d$ induced by $X$. Concerning the matrix-valued function $A=\{a_{ij}\}$, we assume that it be real, symmetric and uniformly positive d…
