First-order Sobolev spaces, self-similar energies and energy measures on the Sierpi\'{n}ski carpet

Abstract

We construct and investigate $(1, p)$-Sobolev space, $p$-energy, and the corresponding $p$-energy measures on the planar Sierpi\'{n}ski carpet for all $p \in (1, \infty)$. Our method is based on the idea of Kusuoka and Zhou [Probab. Theory Related Fields $\textbf{93}$ (1992), no. 2, 169--196], where Brownian motion (the case $p = 2$) on self-similar sets including the planar Sierpi\'{n}ski carpet were constructed. Similar to this earlier work, we use a sequence of discrete graph approximations and the corresponding discrete $p$-energies to define the Sobolev space and $p$-energies. However, we need a new approach to ensure that our $(1, p)$-Sobolev space has a dense set of continuous functions when $p$ is less than the Ahlfors regular conformal dimension. The new ingredients are the use of Loewner type estimates on combinatorial modulus to obtain Poincar\'e inequality and elliptic Harnack inequality on a sequence of approximating graphs. An important feature of our Sobolev space is the self-similarity of our $p$-energy, which allows us to define corresponding $p$-energy measures on the planar Sierpi\'{n}ski carpet. We show that our Sobolev space can also be viewed as a Korevaar-Schoen type space. We apply our results to the attainment problem for Ahlfors regular conformal dimension of the Sierpi\'{n}ski carpet. In particular, we show that if the Ahlfors regular conformal dimension, say $\dim_{\mathrm{ARC}}$, is attained, then any optimal measure which attains $\dim_{\mathrm{ARC}}$ should be comparable with the $\dim_{\mathrm{ARC}}$-energy measure of some function in our $(1, \dim_{\mathrm{ARC}})$-Sobolev space up to a multiplicative constant. In this case, we also prove that the Newton-Sobolev space corresponding to any optimal measure and metric can be identified as our self-similar $(1, \dim_{\mathrm{ARC}})$-Sobolev space.