arXiv research

Integrability of mean curvature near degenerate points in Heisenberg group.

We introduce a sub-Riemannian analogue of the Bence-Merriman-Osher diffusion driven algorithm and show that it leads to weak solutions of the horizontal mean curvature flow of graphs over sub-Riemannian Carnot groups. The proof follows the nonlinear semi-group theory approach originally introduced by L. C. Evans in the…

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…

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…

In this paper we consider surfaces of class $C^1$ with continuous prescribed mean curvature in a three-dimensional contact sub-Riemannian manifold and prove that their characteristic curves are of class $C^2$. This regularity result also holds for critical points of the sub-Riemannian perimeter under a volume constrain…

The article proves integral formulas for foliated sub-Riemannian manifolds.

We consider the evolution by inverse mean curvature flow of a closed, mean convex and star-shaped hypersurface in the complex hyperbolic space. We prove that the flow is defined for any positive time, the evolving hypersurface stays star-shaped and mean convex. Moreover the induced metric converges, after rescaling, to…

Study on curvatures of surfaces in specific Lie groups.

In this paper we complete the study started in [Pi2] of evolution by inverse mean curvature flow of star-shaped hypersurface in non-compact rank one symmetric spaces. We consider the evolution by inverse mean curvature flow of a closed, mean convex and star-shaped hypersurface in the quaternionic hyperbolic space. We p…

In this paper we consider a set $E\subsetΩ$ with prescribed mean curvature $f\in C(Ω)$ and Euclidean Lipschitz boundary $\partial E=Σ$ inside a three-dimensional contact sub-Riemannian manifold $M$. We prove that if $Σ$ is locally a regular intrinsic graph, the characteristic curves are of class $C^2$. The result is sh…

Unified interpretation of sub-Riemannian Gauss-Bonnet theorem for surfaces in 3D contact manifolds.

This paper extends IMCF theory to Heisenberg group, solving Penrose inequality.

Derives sub-Riemannian Ricci curvature for various manifolds.

The paper introduces a new flow for Legendrian curves in Sasakian sub-Riemannian 3-manifolds.

Study on $t$-graphs with prescribed mean curvature in Heisenberg 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 …

Study curvature invariants in sub-Riemannian manifolds.

In this paper we study the generalized mean curvature flow of sets in the sub-Riemannian geometry of Carnot groups. We extend to our context the level sets method and the weak (viscosity) solutions introduced in the Euclidean setting by Evans-Spruck and Chen-Giga-Goto. We establish two special cases of the comparison p…

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 investigate the minimal and isoperimetric surface problems in a large class of sub-Riemannian manifolds, the so-called Vertically Rigid spaces. We construct an adapted connection for such spaces and, using the variational tools of Bryant, Griffiths and Grossman, derive succinct forms of the Euler-Lagrange equations …

Sub-Riemannian structures on odd-dimensional spheres respecting the Hopf fibration naturally appear in quantum mechanics. We study the curvature maps for such a sub-Riemannian structure and express them using the Riemannian curvature tensor of the Fubini-Study metric of the complex projective space and the curvature fo…

Unified study of Riemannian and sub-Riemannian geometries with synthetic Ricci curvature bounds.

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…

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…

New method for curvature computation in sub-Riemannian geometry.

Each sub-Riemannian geometry with bracket generating distribution enjoys a background structure determined by the distribution itself. At the same time, those geometries with constant sub-Riemannian symbols determine a unique Cartan connection leading to their principal invariants. We provide cohomological description …

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

In the context of sub-Riemannian Heisenberg groups Hn, n \geq 1, we shall study Isoperimetric Profiles, which are closed compact hypersurfaces having constant horizontal mean curvature, very similar to ellipsoids. Our main goal is to study the stability of Isoperimetric Profiles.

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…

New sub-Riemannian spaces with boundary meet curvature-dimension condition.

We study a family of spheres with constant mean curvature (CMC) in the Riemannian Heisenberg group $H^1$. These spheres are conjectured to be the isoperimetric sets of $H^1$. We prove several results supporting this conjecture. We also focus our attention on the sub-Riemannian limit.

The paper extends Liouville theorems to sub-Riemannian manifolds.

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 …

Paper estimates curvature of minimal surfaces in a specific geometric space.

New sub-Riemannian structures fail synthetic curvature bounds.

We introduce a notion of geodesic curvature $k_ζ$ for a smooth horizontal curve $ζ$ in a three-dimensional contact sub-Riemannian manifold, measuring how much a horizontal curve is far from being a geodesic. We show that the geodesic curvature appears as the first corrective term in the Taylor expansion of the sub-Riem…

Let G be a k-step Carnot group. We prove an isoperimetric-type inequality for compact C^2-smooth immersed hypersurfaces with boundary, involving the horizontal mean curvature of the hypersurface. This generalizes an inequality due to Michael and Simon, and Allard, independently. Some applications are discussed.

The curvature discussed in this paper is a rather far going generalization of the Riemannian sectional curvature. We define it for a wide class of optimal control problems: a unified framework including geometric structures such as Riemannian, sub-Riemannian, Finsler and sub-Finsler structures; a special attention is p…

We prove global estimates for the sub-Riemannian distance of CR Sasakian manifolds with non negative horizontal Webster-Tanaka Ricci curvature. In particular, in this setting, large sub-Riemannian balls are comparable to Riemannian balls.

In this paper we study global distance estimates and uniform local volume estimates in a large class of sub-Riemannian manifolds. Our main device is the generalized curvature dimension inequality introduced by the first and the third author in \cite{BG1} and its use to obtain sharp inequalities for solutions of the sub…

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 use a Riemannnian approximation scheme to define a notion of $\textit{sub-Riemannian Gaussian curvature}$ for a Euclidean $C^{2}$-smooth surface in the Heisenberg group $\mathbb{H}$ away from characteristic points, and a notion of $\textit{sub-Riemannian signed geodesic curvature}$ for Euclidean $C^{2}$-smooth curve…

In this note we show how results in \cite{BaudoinBonnefont2016, BaudoinGarofalo2013, CoulhonJiangKoskelaSikora2017} yield the Cheng-Yau estimate on two classes of sub-Riemannian manifolds: Carnot groups and sub-Riemannian manifolds satisfying a generalized curvature-dimension inequality.

We compute the asymptotic expansion of the volume of small sub-Riemannian balls in a contact 3-dimensional manifold, and we express the first meaningful geometric coefficients in terms of geometric invariants of the sub-Riemannian structure

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

The paper studies metrics and geodesics on a quaternionic Heisenberg group.

Study shows only hyperplanes in Heisenberg groups have zero curvature.