arXiv research

Maps commuting with sub-Laplacians on Carnot groups are conformal.

Study of intrinsic sub-Laplacian for hypersurfaces in contact sub-Riemannian manifolds.

Sub-Riemannian spectral distance defined using eigenfunctions of sub-Laplacian

We study eigenvalue problems for intrinsic sub-Laplacians on regular sub-Riemannian manifolds. We prove upper bounds for sub-Laplacian eigenvalues $λ_k$ of conformal sub-Riemannian metrics that are asymptotically sharp as $k\to +\infty$. For Sasakian manifolds with a lower Ricci curvature bound, and more generally, for…

We establish lower bounds for the first non-zero eigenvalue for the natural geometric sub-elliptic Laplacian operator defined on sub-Riemannian manifolds of step 2 that satisfy a positive curvature condition. The methods are very general and can be applied even when the sub-Riemannian geometry has considerable torsion.

We consider different sub-Laplacians on a sub-Riemannian manifold $M$. Namely, we compare different natural choices for such operators, and give conditions under which they coincide. One of these operators is a sub-Laplacian we constructed previously in \cite{GordinaLaetsch2014a}. This operator is canonical with respec…

Study spectral properties of sub-Riemannian Laplacians, proving quantum ergodicity and heat kernel asymptotics.

We give a generalized curvature-dimension inequality connecting the geometry of sub-Riemannian manifolds with the properties of its sub-Laplacian. This inequality is valid on a large class of sub-Riemannian manifolds obtained from Riemannian foliations. We give a geometric interpretation of the invariants involved in t…

We prove a general essential self-adjointness criterion for sub-Laplacians on complete sub-Riemannian manifolds, defined with respect to singular measures. As a consequence, we show that the intrinsic sub-Laplacian (i.e. defined w.r.t. Popp's measure) is essentially self-adjoint on the equiregular connected components …

On H-type sub-Riemannian manifolds we establish sub-Hessian and sub-Laplacian comparison theorems which are uniform for a family of approximating Riemannian metrics converging to the sub-Riemannian one. We also prove a sharp sub-Riemannian Bonnet-Myers theorem that extends to this general setting results previously pro…

For a fat sub-Riemannian structure, we introduce three canonical Ricci curvatures in the sense of Agrachev-Zelenko-Li. Under appropriate bounds we prove comparison theorems for conjugate lengths, Bonnet-Myers type results and Laplacian comparison theorems for the intrinsic sub-Laplacian. As an application, we consider …

Sub-Riemannian Selberg trace formulae for compact quotients of SL(2, R)

New model explains visual illusions using sub-Riemannian geometry.

We study a new class of rank two sub-Riemannian manifolds encompassing Riemannian manifolds, CR manifolds with vanishing Webster-Tanaka torsion, orthonormal bundles over Riemannian manifolds, and graded nilpotent Lie groups of step two. These manifolds admit a canonical horizontal connection and a canonical sub-Laplaci…

This paper considers a classical question of approximation of Brownian motion by a random walk in the setting of a sub-Riemannian manifold $M$. To construct such a random walk we first address several issues related to the degeneracy of such a manifold. In particular, we define a family of sub-Laplacian operators natur…

Study large deviations for hypoelliptic diffusion on sub-Riemannian manifolds.

We prove comparison theorems for the sub-Riemannian distortion coefficients appearing in interpolation inequalities. These results, which are equivalent to a sub-Laplacian comparison theorem for the sub-Riemannian distance, are obtained by introducing a suitable notion of sub-Riemannian Bakry-Émery curvature. The model…

On a sub-Riemannian manifold we define two type of Laplacians. The \emph{macroscopic Laplacian} $Δ_ω$, as the divergence of the horizontal gradient, once a volume $ω$ is fixed, and the \emph{microscopic Laplacian}, as the operator associated with a sequence of geodesic random walks. We consider a general class of rando…

We prove several relations between spectrum and dynamics including wave trace expansion, sharp/improved Weyl laws, propagation of singularities and quantum ergodicity for the sub-Riemannian (sR) Laplacian in the four dimensional quasi-contact case. A key role in all results is played by the presence of abnormal geodesi…

We prove a Bishop volume comparison theorem and a Laplacian comparison theorem for a natural sub-Riemannian structure defined on Sasakian manifolds. This generalizes the earlier work for the three dimensional case.

Study local invariants and geometry of sub-Laplacian on H-type foliations.

We prove a geometrically meaningful stochastic representation of the derivative of the heat semigroup on sub-Riemannian manifolds with tranverse symmetries. This representation is obtained from the study of Bochner-Weitzenbock type formulas for sub-Laplacians on 1-forms. As a consequence, we prove new hypoelliptic heat…

We generalize the results of Montgomery for the Bochner Laplacian on high tensor powers of a line bundle. When specialized to Riemann surfaces, this leads to the Bergman kernel expansion and geometric quantization results for semi-positive line bundles whose curvature vanishes at finite order. The proof exploits the re…

We study the radial part of sub-Riemannian Brownian motion in the context of totally geodesic foliations. Itô's formula is proved for the radial processes associated to Riemannian distances approximating the Riemannian one. We deduce very general stochastic completeness criteria for the sub-Riemannian Brownian motion. …

We prove the equivalence of several natural notions of conformal maps between sub-Riemannian manifolds. Our main contribution is in the setting of those manifolds that support a suitable regularity theory for subelliptic $p$-Laplacian operators. For such manifolds we prove a Liouville-type theorem, i.e., 1-quasiconform…

For an equiregular sub-Riemannian manifold M, Popp's volume is a smooth volume which is canonically associated with the sub-Riemannian structure, and it is a natural generalization of the Riemannian one. In this paper we prove a general formula for Popp's volume, written in terms of a frame adapted to the sub-Riemannia…

We prove a lower bound for the first eigenvalue of the sub-Laplacian on sub-Riemannian manifolds with transverse symmetries. When the manifold is of H-type, we obtain a corresponding rigidity result: If the optimal lower bound for the first eigenvalue is reached, then the manifold is equivalent to a 1 or a 3-Sasakian s…

We study a Laplacian operator related to the characteristic cohomology of a smooth manifold endowed with a distribution. We prove that this Laplacian does not behave very well: it is not hypoelliptic in general and does not respect the bigrading on forms in a complex setting. We also discuss the consequences of these n…

We study the sub-Laplacian of the $15$-dimensional unit sphere which is obtained by lifting with respect to the Hopf fibration the Laplacian of the octonionic projective space. We obtain in particular explicit formulas for its heat kernel and deduce an expression for the Green function of a related sub-Laplacian. As a …

In this paper we prove a sub-Riemannian version of the classical Santaló formula: a result in integral geometry that describes the intrinsic Liouville measure on the unit cotangent bundle in terms of the geodesic flow. Our construction works under quite general assumptions, satisfied by any sub-Riemannian structure ass…

The paper proves new comparison theorems for sub-Laplacian in foliations with minimal leaves.

Constructs stochastic processes on sub-Riemannian manifolds using Cartan connections.

In this article we study the sub-Riemannian geometry of the spheres $S^{2n+1}$ and $S^{4n+3}$, arising from the principal $S^1-$bundle structure defined by the Hopf map and the principal $S^3-$bundle structure given by the quaternionic Hopf map respectively. The $S^1$ action leads to the classical contact geometry of $…

Study examines harmonic functions in sub-Riemannian and RCD settings.

We study a "div-grad type" sub-Laplacian with respect to a smooth measure and its associated heat semigroup on a compact equiregular sub-Riemannian manifold. We prove a short time asymptotic expansion of the heat trace up to any order. Our main result holds true for any smooth measure on the manifold, but it has a spec…

One can formulate the classical Kepler problem on the Heisenberg group, the simplest sub-Riemannian manifold. We take the sub-Riemannian Hamiltonian as our kinetic energy, and our potential is the fundamental solution to the Heisenberg sub-Laplacian. The resulting dynamical system is known to contain a fundamental inte…

This is the first paper of a series in which we plan to study spectral asymptotics for sub-Riemannian Laplacians and to extend results that are classical in the Riemannian case concerning Weyl measures, quantum limits, quantum ergodicity, quasi-modes, trace formulae.Even if hypoelliptic operators have been well studied…

We develop a variational theory of geodesics for the canonical variation of the metric of a totally geodesic foliation. As a consequence, we obtain comparison theorems for the horizontal and vertical Laplacians. In the case of Sasakian foliations, we show that sharp horizontal and vertical comparison theorems for the s…

Using the curvature-dimension inequality proved in Part~I, we look at consequences of this inequality in terms of the interaction between the sub-Riemannian geometry and the heat semigroup $P_t$ corresponding to the sub-Laplacian. We give bounds for the gradient, entropy, a Poincaré inequality and a Li-Yau type inequal…

We relate some basic constructions of stochastic analysis to differential geometry, via random walk approximations. We consider walks on both Riemannian and sub-Riemannian manifolds in which the steps consist of travel along either geodesics or integral curves associated to orthonormal frames, and we give particular at…

Study shows failure of curvature-dimension conditions on sub-Riemannian manifolds.

With a view toward sub-Riemannian geometry, we introduce and study H-type foliations. These structures are natural generalizations of K-contact geometries which encompass as special cases K-contact manifolds, twistor spaces, 3K contact manifolds and H-type groups. Under an horizontal Ricci curvature lower bound, we pro…

We study the behavior of the heat kernel of the Hodge Laplacian on a contact manifold endowed with a family of Riemannian metrics that blow-up the directions transverse to the contact distribution. We apply this to analyze the behavior of global spectral invariants such as the eta-invariant and the determinant of the L…

We study the heat kernel of the sub-Laplacian L on the CR sphere S2n+1. An explicit and geometrically meaningful formula for the heat kernel is obtained. As a by-product we recover in a simple way the Green function of the conformal sub- Laplacian -L + n2 that was obtained by Geller [12], and also get an explicit formu…

Study examines boundedness of oscillating singular integrals on specific Lie groups.

Study magnetic Laplacian eigenvalues on contact manifolds.

In this paper we show that, for a sub-Laplacian $Δ$ on a $3$-dimensional manifold $M$, no point interaction centered at a point $q_0\in M$ exists. When $M$ is complete w.r.t. the associated sub-Riemannian structure, this means that $Δ$ acting on $C^\infty_0(M\setminus\{q_0\})$ is essentially self-adjoint. A particular …

The study develops inequalities for Riemannian foliations without bundle-like assumptions.