An intrinsic definition in terms of conformal capacity is proposed for the conformal type of a Carnot--Carathéodory space (parabolic or hyperbolic). Geometric criteria of conformal type are presented. They are closely related to the asymptotic geometry of the space at infinity and expressed in terms of the isoperimetric function and the growth of the area of geodesic spheres. In particular, it is proved that a sub-Riemannian manifold admits a conformal change of metric that makes it into a complete manifold of finite volume if and only if the manifold is of conformally parabolic type. Further applications are discussed, such as the relation between local and global invertibility properties of quasiconformal immersions (the global homeomorphism theorem).
We introduce a new class of unbounded model subdomains of $\mathbb{C}^2$ for the $\Box_b$ problem. Unlike previous finite type models, these domains need not be bounded by algebraic varieties. In this paper we obtain precise global estimates for the Carnot-Carathéodory metric induced on the boundary of such domains by the real and imaginary parts of the CR vector field.
The paper sketches a recent progress and formulates several open problems in studying equivariant quasiconformal and quasisymmetric homeomorphisms in negatively curved spaces as well as geometry and topology of noncompact geometrically finite negatively curved manifolds and their boundaries at infinity having Carnot--Carathéodory structures. Especially, the most interesting are complex hyperbolic manifolds with Cauchy--Riemannian structure at infinity, which occupy a distinguished niche and whose properties make them surprisingly different from real hyperbolic ones.
We consider the rate of volume growth of large Carnot-Carathéodory metric balls on a class of unbounded model hypersurfaces in $\mathbb{C}^2$. When the hypersurface has a uniform global structure, we show that a metric ball of radius $δ\gg 1$ either has volume on the order of $δ^3$ or $δ^4$. We also give necessary and sufficient conditions on the hypersurface to display either behavior.
We deform a map into a Riemannian manifold that is horizontal with respect to a submersion onto a non-positively curved manifold and satisfies a Chow condition into a harmonic one through a horizontal homotopy.
In this paper we study the invariant Carnot-Caratheodory metrics on $SU(2)\simeq S^3$, $SO(3)$ and $SL(2)$ induced by their Cartan decomposition and by the Killing form. Beside computing explicitly geodesics and conjugate loci, we compute the cut loci (globally) and we give the expression of the Carnot-Caratheodory distance as the inverse of an elementary function. We then prove that the metric given on $SU(2)$ projects on the so called lens spaces $L(p,q)$. Also for lens spaces, we compute the cut loci (globally). For $SU(2)$ the cut locus is a maximal circle without one point. In all other c…
Combining Varadhan's formula, Loewner's theorem with the method of stationary phase, we study the exact formula of the Carnot-Carathéodory distance on $2$-step groups. The method is also adapted to determine all normal geodesics from the identity element to any given point (up to a set of measure zero). As an application, we characterize the squared sub-Riemannian distance as well as the cut locus on generalized Heisenberg-type groups and on star graphs respectively. Furthermore, the long-standing open problem of Gaveau-Brockett is completely solved in the case of $N_{3, 2}$, the free Carnot g…
We extend Bony's propagation of support argument \cite{Bony} to $C^1$ solutions of the non-homogeneous sub-elliptic $p-$Laplacian associated to a system of smooth vector fields satisfying Hörmander's finite rank condition. As a consequence we prove a strong maximum principle and strong comparison principle that generalize results of Tolksdorf \cite{Tolksdorf}.
In this paper we discuss the convergence of distances associated to converging structures of Lipschitz vector fields and continuously varying norms on a smooth manifold. We prove that, under a mild controllability assumption on the limit vector-fields structure, the distances associated to equi-Lipschitz vector-fields structures that converge uniformly on compact subsets, and to norms that converge uniformly on compact subsets, converge locally uniformly to the limit Carnot-Carathéodory distance. In the case in which the limit distance is boundedly compact, we show that the convergence of the …
We find a different approach to define convex functions in the sub-Riemannian setting. A function on a sub-Riemannian manifold is nonholonomically geodesic convex if its restriction to any nonholonomic (straightest) geodesic is convex. In the case of Carnot groups, this definition coincides with that by Danniell-Garofalo-Nieuhn (equivalent to that by Lu-Manfredi-Stroffolini). Nonholonomic geodesics are defined using the horizontal connection. A new distance corresponding to the horizontal connection has been introduced and near regular points proven to be equivalent to the Carnot-Carathèodory …
We study the class of transversal submanifolds. We characterize their blow-ups at transversal points and prove a negligibility theorem for their "generalized characteristic set", with respect to the Carnot-Carathéodory Hausdorff measure. This set is made by all points of non-maximal degree. Observing that C^1 submanifolds in Carnot groups are generically transversal, the previous results prove that the "intrinsic measure" of C^1 submanifolds is generically equivalent to their Carnot-Carathéodory Hausdorff measure. As a result, the restriction of this Hausdorff measure to the submanifold can be…
We examine the theory of metric currents of Ambrosio and Kirchheim in the setting of spaces admitting differentiable structures in the sense of Cheeger and Keith. We prove that metric forms which vanish in the sense of Cheeger on a set must also vanish when paired with currents concentrated along that set. From this we deduce a generalization of the chain rule, and show that currents of absolutely continuous mass are given by integration against measurable $k$-vector fields. We further prove that if the underlying metric space is a Carnot group with its Carnot-Carathéodory distance, then every…
Carnot groups are distinguished spaces that are rich of structure: they are those Lie groups equipped with a path distance that is invariant by left-translations of the group and admit automorphisms that are dilations with respect to the distance. We present the basic theory of Carnot groups together with several remarks. We consider them as special cases of graded groups and as homogeneous metric spaces. We discuss the regularity of isometries in the general case of Carnot-Caratheodory spaces and of nilpotent metric Lie groups.
We consider contact manifolds equipped with Carnot-Caratheodory metrics, and show that the Rumin complex is respected by Sobolev mappings: Pansu pullback induces a chain mapping between the smooth Rumin complex and the distributional Rumin complex. As a consequence, the Rumin flat complex -- the analog of the Whitney flat complex in the setting of contact manifolds -- is bilipschitz invariant. We also show that for Sobolev mappings between general Carnot groups, Pansu pullback induces a chain mapping when restricted to a certain differential ideal of the de Rham complex. Both results are appli…
The purpose of these notes is to explain parts of Gromov's survey of Carnot-Carathedory spaces, in the light of subsequent results of M. Rumin. Among the rich material provided by Gromov, most of which pertains to analysis on metric spaces, we choose to concentrate on the H{ö}lder equivalence problem for Carnot manifolds. The notes go to some extent into the PDE technique used by Gromov in order to construct horizontal submanifolds. Rumin's complex is explained too. The upshot is that both methods yield more or less the same conclusions as far as the H{ö}lder equivalence problem is concerned.
This paper is a continuation of the previous work of the first author. We characterize a class of step-two groups introduced in \cite{Li19}, saying GM-groups, via some basic sub-Riemannian geometric properties, including the squared Carnot-Carathéodory distance, the cut locus, the classical cut locus, the optimal synthesis, etc. Also, the shortest abnormal set can be exhibited easily in such situation. Some examples of such groups are step-two groups of corank $2$, of Kolmogorov type, or those associated to quadratic CR manifolds. As a byproduct, the main goal in \cite{BBG12} is achieved from …
We show that canonical Carnot-Caratheodory spherical and horospherical metrics, which are defined on the boundary at infinity of every rank one symmetric space of non-compact type, are visual, i.e., they are bilipschitz equivalent with universal bilipschitz constants to the inverse exponent of Gromov products based in the space and on the boundary at infinity respectively.
In this paper, we prove results concerning the large scale geometry of connected, simply connected nonabelian nilpotent Lie groups equipped with left invariant Riemannian metrics. Precisely, we prove that there do not exist quasi-isometric embeddings of such a nilpotent Lie group into either a CAT(0) metric space or an Alexandrov metric space with curvature bounded below. The main technical aspect of this work is the proof of a limited metric differentiability of Lipschitz maps between connected graded nilpotent Lie groups equipped with left invariant Carnot-Caratheodory metrics and complete m…
Gromov proposed to extract the (differential) geometric content of a sub-riemannian space exclusively from its Carnot-Carathéodory distance. One of the most striking features of a regular sub-riemannian space is that it has at any point a metric tangent space with the algebraic structure of a Carnot group, hence a homogeneous Lie group. Siebert characterizes homogeneous Lie groups as locally compact groups admitting a contracting and continuous one-parameter group of automorphisms. Siebert result has not a metric character. In these notes I show that sub-riemannian geometry may be described by…
We apply the theory of Weyl structures for parabolic geometries developed by A. Cap and J. Slovak in to compute, for a quaternionic contact (qc) structure, the Weyl connection associated to a choice of scale, i.e. to a choice of Carnot-Carathéodory metric in the conformal class. The result of this computation has applications to the study of the conformal Fefferman space of a qc manifold. In addition to this application, we are also able to easily compute a tensorial formula for the qc analog of the Weyl curvature tensor in conformal geometry and the Chern-Moser tensor in CR geometry. This ten…
We consider the Carnot-Carathéodory distance $δ_E$ to a closed set $E$ in the sub-Riemannian Heisenberg groups $\mathbb{H}^n$, $n\ge 1$. The $\mathbb{H}$-regularity of $δ_E$ is proved under mild conditions involving a general notion of singular points. In case $E$ is a Euclidean $C^k$ submanifold, $k\ge 2$, we prove that $δ_E$ is $C^k$ out of the singular set. Explicit expressions for the volume of the tubular neighborhood when the boundary of $E$ is of class $C^2$ are obtained, out of the singular set, in terms of the horizontal principal curvatures of $\partial E$ and of the function $\langl…
We study mappings on sub-Riemannian manifolds which are quasi-regular with respect to the Carnot-Caratheodory distances and discuss several related notions. On H-type Carnot groups, quasiregular mappings have been introduced earlier using an analytic definition, but so far, a good working definition in the same spirit is not available in the setting of general sub-Riemannian manifolds. In the present paper we adopt therefore a metric rather than analytic viewpoint. As a first main result, we prove that the sub-Riemannian lens space admits nontrivial uniformly quasiregular (UQR) mappings, that …
