arXiv research

We study the classification of area-stationary and stable $C^2$ regular surfaces in the space of the rigid motions of the Minkowski plane E(1,1), equipped with its sub-Riemannian structure. We construct examples of area-stationary surfaces that are not foliated by sub-Riemannian geodesics. We also prove that there exis…

The paper studies Pansu spheres in a sub-Riemannian 3-sphere and their area-minimizing properties.

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 cas…

We show that in the first sub-Riemannian Heisenberg group there are intrinsic graphs of smooth functions that are both critical and stable points of the sub-Riemannian perimeter under compactly supported variations of contact diffeomorphisms, despite the fact that they are not area-minimizing surfaces. In particular, w…

Let $M$ be a complete Sasakian sub-Riemannian $3$-manifold of constant Webster scalar curvature $κ$. For any point $p\in M$ and any number $λ\in\mathbb{R}$ with $λ^2+κ>0$, we show existence of a $C^2$ spherical surface $\mathcal{S}_λ(p)$ immersed in $M$ with constant mean curvature $λ$. Our construction recovers in par…

We study stable surfaces, i.e., second order minima of the area for variations of fixed volume, in sub-Riemannian space forms of dimension $3$. We prove a stability inequality and provide sufficient conditions ensuring instability of volume-preserving area-stationary $C^2$ surfaces with a non-empty singular set of curv…

For constant mean curvature surfaces of class $C^2$ immersed inside Sasakian sub-Riemannian 3-manifolds we obtain a formula for the second derivative of the area which involves horizontal analytical terms, the Webster scalar curvature of the ambient manifold, and the extrinsic shape of the surface. Then we prove classi…

Mathematical analysis of Prytz planimeter using sub-Riemannian geometry.

In the present paper we consider generic Sub-Riemannian structures on the co-rank 1 non-holonomic vector distributions and introduce the associated canonical volume and ''horizontal'' area forms. As in the classical case, the Sub-Riemannian minimal surfaces can be defined as the critical points of the '`horizontal'' ar…

Study shows stable graphs in Heisenberg group are essentially planes.

We study minimal surfaces in generic sub-Riemannian manifolds with sub-Riemannian structures of co-rank one. These surfaces can be defined as the critical points of the so-called {\it horizontal} area functional associated to the canonical {\it horizontal} area form. We derive the intrinsic equation in the general case…

We prove that any $C^2$ complete, orientable, connected, stable area-stationary surface in the sub-Riemannian Heisenberg group $\mathbb{H}^1$ is either a Euclidean plane or congruent to the hyperbolic paraboloid $t=xy$.

We calculate the first and the second variation formula for the sub-Riemannian area in three dimensional pseudo-hermitian manifolds. We consider general variations that can move the singular set of a C^2 surface and non-singular variation for C_H^2 surfaces. These formulas enable us to construct a stability operator fo…

A surface of constant mean curvature (CMC) equal to $H$ in a sub-Riemannian $3$-manifold is strongly stable if it minimizes the functional $\text{area}+2H\,\text{volume}$ up to second order. In this paper we obtain some criteria ensuring strong stability of surfaces in Sasakian $3$-manifolds. We also produce new exampl…

Study area and coarea formulas for graphs and submanifolds in Carnot groups.

We consider the sub-Riemannian metric $g_{h}$ on $\mathbb{S}^3$ provided by the restriction of the Riemannian metric of curvature 1 to the plane distribution orthogonal to the Hopf vector field. We compute the geodesics associated to the Carnot-Carathéodory distance and we show that, depending on their curvature, they …

The book explores stochastic areas and heat kernels on manifolds.

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…

We present a neuro-mathematical model for geometrical optical illusions (GOIs), a class of illusory phenomena that consists in a mismatch of geometrical properties of the visual stimulus and its associated percept. They take place in the visual areas V1/V2 whose functional architecture have been modelled in previous wo…

The authors first in this paper define a semi-symmetric metric non-holonomic connection (called in briefly a semi-sub-Riemannian connection) on sub-Riemannian manifolds, and study the relations between sub-Riemannian connections and semi-sub-Riemannian connections. An invariant under a connection transformation $\nabla…

Sub-Riemannian cubics are a generalisation of Riemannian cubics to a sub-Riemannian manifold. Cubics are curves which minimise the integral of the norm squared of the covariant acceleration. Sub-Riemannian cubics are cubics which are restricted to move in a horizontal subspace of the tangent space. When the sub-Riemann…

Derives sub-Riemannian Ricci curvature for various manifolds.

The authors Balogh-Tyson-Vecchi in arXiv:1604.00180 utilize the Riemannian approximations scheme $(\mathbb H^1,<,>_L)$, in the Heisenberg group, introduced by Gromov, to calculate the limits of Gaussian and normal curvatures defined on surfaces of $\mathbb H^1$ when $L\rightarrow\infty$. They show that these limits exi…

In the present paper we give a historical account -ranging from classical to modern results- of the problem of rolling two Riemannian manifolds one on the other, with the restrictions that they cannot instantaneously slip or spin one with respect to the other. On the way we show how this problem has profited from the d…

Maps on Sasakian manifolds limit to sub-Riemannian distance bounds.

Harmonic maps studied in sub-Riemannian geometry for Lie groups.

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

Study shows not all smooth paths are optimal in certain geometric structures.

We obtain some results on symmetries of sub-Riemannian surfaces. In case of contact sub-Riemannian surface we base on invariants found by Hughen \cite{Hughen}. Using these invariants, we find conditions under which a sub-Riemannian surface does not admit symmetries. If a surface admits symmetries, we show how invariant…

The authors define a SNS (semi-nearly-sub)-Riemannian connection on nearly sub-Riemannian manifolds and study the geometric properties of such a connection, and obtain the natures of horizontal curvature tensors between horizontal sub-Riemannian connection and SNS-Riemannian connection. The authors further investigate …

We study some sub-Riemannian objects (such as horizontal connectivity, horizontal connection, horizontal tangent plane, horizontal mean curvature) in hypersurfaces of sub-Riemannian manifolds. We prove that if a connected hypersurface in a contact manifold of dimension more than three is noncharacteristic or with isola…

New examples of sub-Riemannian structures satisfying Minimizing Sard conjecture found.

This paper is concerned with the study of the Monge optimal transport problem in sub-Riemannian manifolds where the cost is given by the square of the sub-Riemannian distance. Our aim is to extend previous results on existence and uniqueness of optimal transport maps to cases of sub-Riemannian structures which admit ma…

This work is an investigation of perimeter measures in the metric measure space given by the Heisenberg group with Haar measure and a Carnot-Carathéodory metric, which is in general a sub-Finsler metric. Included is a reduction of Minkowski content in any CC-metric to an integral formula in terms of Lebesgue surface ar…

Introduces canonical connections for sub-Riemannian manifolds with constant symbol.

The paper develops a non-transitive Cartan connection for sub-Riemannian manifolds.

We consider in this paper an area functional defined on submanifolds of fixed degree immersed into a graded manifold equipped with a Riemannian metric. Since the expression of this area depends on the degree, not all variations are admissible. It turns out that the associated variational vector fields must satisfy a sy…

The notion of a parallelizable distribution has been introduced and investigated. A non-integrable parallelizable distribution carries a natural sub-Riemannian structure. The geometry of this structure has been studied from the bi-viewpoint of absolute parallelism geometry and sub-Riemannian geometry. Two remarkable li…

This paper classifies Legendre singularities of sub-Riemannian geodesics on surfaces.

Study sub-Riemannian surfaces in contact manifolds, proving a Gauss-Bonnet theorem.

We compare different notions of curvature on contact sub-Riemannian manifolds. In particular we introduce canonical curvatures as the coefficients of the sub-Riemannian Jacobi equation. The main result is that all these coefficients are encoded in the asymptotic expansion of the horizontal derivatives of the sub-Rieman…

In this letter we exhibit the relation between the isometries of a Riemannian contraction of a sub-Riemannian manifold and those of the sub-Riemannian metric, for to use this relation with two goals: establishing a result about the existence of fixed points of isometries groups; and the other, defining a Multiresolutio…

Reduced sub-Riemannian time on a specific group structure.

Spirals are not shortest paths in certain sub-Riemannian geometries.

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…

In this note we address a notion of sublaplacians of sub-Riemannian manifolds. In particular for fat sub-Riemannian manifolds we answered the sublaplacian question proposed by R. Montgomery.

Study sub-Riemannian geodesics on a Heisenberg 3D nil-manifold.

Study on homogeneous geodesics in sub-Riemannian geometry.