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Luigi Ambrosio

Publications and source records attributed to Luigi Ambrosio.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

Rectifiability of sets of finite perimeter in Carnot groups: existence of a tangent hyperplane

We consider sets of locally finite perimeter in Carnot groups. We show that if E is a set of locally finite perimeter in a Carnot group G, then for almost every x in G with respect to the perimeter measure of E, some tangent of E at x is a vertical halfspace. This is a partial extension of a theorem of Franchi-Serapioni-Serra Cassano in step 2 Carnot groups: they have shown that, for almost every x, E has a unique tangent at x, and this tangent is a vertical halfspace.

math.AP↗

A nonautonomous chain rule in $W^{1,p}$ and $BV$

In this paper we consider the chain rule formula for compositions $x\mapsto F(x, u(x))$ in the case when $u$ has a Sobolev or BV regularity and $F(x,z)$ is separately Sobolev, or BV, with respect to $x$ and $C^1$ with respect to $z$. Our results extend to this "nonautonomous" case the results known for compositions $x\mapsto F(u(x))$.

math.CA↗

Optimal transport, Cheeger energies and contractivity of dynamic transport distances in extended spaces

We introduce the setting of extended metric-topological measure spaces as a general "Wiener-like" framework for optimal transport problems and nonsmooth metric analysis in infinite dimension. After a brief review of optimal transport tools for general Radon measures, we discuss the notions of the Cheeger energy, of the Radon measures concentrated on absolutely continuous curves, and of the induced "dynamic transport distances." We study their main properties and their links with the theory of Dirichlet forms and the Bakry-Émery curvature condition, in particular concerning the contractivity properties and the EVI formulation of the induced Heat semigroup.

math.FA↗

On the Lagrangian structure of transport equations: the Vlasov-Poisson system

The Vlasov-Poisson system is a classical model in physics used to describe the evolution of particles under their self-consistent electric or gravitational field. The existence of classical solutions is limited to dimensions $d\leq 3$ under strong assumptions on the initial data, while weak solutions are known to exist under milder conditions. However, in the setting of weak solutions it is unclear whether the Eulerian description provided by the equation physically corresponds to a Lagrangian evolution of the particles. In this paper we develop several general tools concerning the Lagrangian structure of transport equations with non-smooth vector fields and we apply these results: (1) to show that weak solutions of Vlasov-Poisson are Lagrangian; (2) to obtain global existence of weak solutions under minimal assumptions on the initial data.

math.AP↗

DC Calculus

In this paper, we extend the DC Calculus introduced by Perelman on finite dimensional Alexandrov spaces with curvature bounded below. Among other things, our results allow us to define the Hessian and the Laplacian of DC functions (including distance functions as a particular instance) as a measure-valued tensor and a Radon measure respectively. We show that these objects share various properties with their analogues on smooth Riemannian manifolds.

math.DG↗

Bakry-Émery curvature-dimension condition and Riemannian Ricci curvature bounds

The aim of the present paper is to bridge the gap between the Bakry-Émery and the Lott-Sturm-Villani approaches to provide synthetic and abstract notions of lower Ricci curvature bounds. We start from a strongly local Dirichlet form ${\mathcal{E}}$ admitting a Carré du champ $Γ$ in a Polish measure space $(X,\mathfrak{m})$ and a canonical distance ${\mathsf{d}}_{\mathcal{E}}$ that induces the original topology of $X$. We first characterize the distinguished class of Riemannian Energy measure spaces, where ${\mathcal{E}}$ coincides with the Cheeger energy induced by ${\mathsf{d}}_{\mathcal{E}}$ and where every function $f$ with $Γ(f)\le1$ admits a continuous representative. In such a class, we show that if ${\mathcal{E}}$ satisfies a suitable weak form of the Bakry-Émery curvature dimension condition $\mathrm {BE}(K,\infty)$ then the metric measure space $(X,{\mathsf{d}},\mathfrak{m})$ satisfies the Riemannian Ricci curvature bound $\mathrm {RCD}(K,\infty)$ according to [Duke Math. J. 163 (2014) 1405-1490], thus showing the equivalence of the two notions. Two applications are then proved: the tensorization property for Riemannian Energy spaces satisfying the Bakry-Émery $\mathrm {BE}(K,N)$ condition (and thus the corresponding one for $\mathrm {RCD}(K,\infty)$ spaces without assuming nonbranching) and the stability of $\mathrm {BE}(K,N)$ with respect to Sturm-Gromov-Hausdorff convergence.

math.FA↗

Well posedness of Lagrangian flows and continuity equations in metric measure spaces

We establish, in a rather general setting, an analogue of DiPerna-Lions theory on well-posedness of flows of ODE's associated to Sobolev vector fields. Key results are a well-posedness result for the continuity equation associated to suitably defined Sobolev vector fields, via a commutator estimate, and an abstract superposition principle in (possibly extended) metric measure spaces, via an embedding into $\mathbb{R}^\infty$. When specialized to the setting of Euclidean or infinite dimensional (e.g. Gaussian) spaces, large parts of previously known results are recovered at once. Moreover, the class of ${\sf RCD}(K,\infty)$ metric measure spaces object of extensive recent research fits into our framework. Therefore we provide, for the first time, well-posedness results for ODE's under low regularity assumptions on the velocity and in a nonsmooth context.

math.FA↗

On the duality between p-Modulus and probability measures

Motivated by recent developments on calculus in metric measure spaces $(X,\mathsf d,\mathfrak m)$, we prove a general duality principle between Fuglede's notion of $p$-modulus for families of finite Borel measures in $(X,\mathsf d)$ and probability measures with barycenter in $L^q(X,\mathfrak m)$, with $q$ dual exponent of $p\in (1,\infty)$. We apply this general duality principle to study null sets for families of parametric and non-parametric curves in $X$. In the final part of the paper we provide a new proof, independent of optimal transportation, of the equivalence of notions of weak upper gradient based on $p$-Modulus (Koskela-MacManus '98, Shanmugalingam '00) and suitable probability measures in the space of curves (Ambrosio-Gigli-Savare '11)

math.FA↗

Tensorization of Cheeger energies, the space $H^{1,1}$ and the area formula for graphs

First we study in detail the tensorization properties of weak gradients in metric measure spaces $(X,d,m)$. Then, we compare potentially different notions of Sobolev space $H^{1,1}(X,d,m)$ and of weak gradient with exponent 1. Eventually we apply these results to compare the area functional $\int\sqrt{1+|\nabla f|_w^2}\,dm$ with the perimeter of the subgraph of $f$, in the same spirit as the classical theory.

math.FA↗

BMO-type norms related to the perimeter of sets

In this paper we consider an isotropic variant of the $BMO$-type norm recently introduced by Bourgain, Brezis and Mironescu. We prove that, when considering characteristic functions of sets, this norm is related to the perimeter. A byproduct of our analysis is a new characterization of the perimeter of sets in terms of this norm, independent of the theory of distributions.

math.FA↗

Existence and uniqueness of maximal regular flows for non-smooth vector fields

In this paper we provide a complete analogy between the Cauchy-Lipschitz and the DiPerna-Lions theories for ODE's, by developing a local version of the DiPerna-Lions theory. More precisely, we prove existence and uniqueness of a maximal regular flow for the DiPerna-Lions theory using only local regularity and summability assumptions on the vector field, in analogy with the classical theory, which uses only local regularity assumptions. We also study the behaviour of the ODE trajectories before the maximal existence time. Unlike the Cauchy-Lipschitz theory, this behaviour crucially depends on the nature of the bounds imposed on the spatial divergence of the vector field. In particular, a global assumption on the divergence is needed to obtain a proper blow-up of the trajectories.

math.AP↗

On the Bakry-Émery condition, the gradient estimates and the Local-to-Global property of RCD*(K,N) metric measure spaces

We prove higher summability and regularity of Γ(f) for functions f in spaces satisfying the Bakry-Émery condition BE(K,\infty). As a byproduct, we obtain various equivalent weak formulations of BE(K,N) and we prove the Local-to-Global property of the RCD*(K,N) condition in locally compact metric measure spaces (X,d,m), without assuming a priori the non-branching condition on the metric space.

math.AP↗

BV functions and sets of finite perimeter in sub-Riemannian manifolds

We give a notion of BV function on an oriented manifold where a volume form and a family of lower semicontinuous quadratic forms $G_p: T_pM \to [0,\infty]$ are given. When we consider sub-Riemannian manifolds, our definition coincide with the one given in the more general context of metric measure spaces which are doubling and support a Poincaré inequality. We then focus on finite perimeter sets, i.e., sets whose characteristic function is BV, in sub-Riemannian manifolds. Under an assumption on the nilpotent approximation, we prove a blowup theorem, generalizing the one obtained for step-2 Carnot groups in [24].

math.DG↗

Riemannian Ricci curvature lower bounds in metric measure spaces with $σ$-finite measure

Using techniques of optimal transportation and gradient flows in metric spaces, we extend the notion of Riemannian Curvature Dimension condition $RCD(K,\infty)$ introduced (in case the reference measure is finite) by Giuseppe Savare', the first and the second author, to the case the reference measure is $σ$-finite; in this way the theory includes natural examples as the euclidean $n$-dimensional space endowed with the Lebesgue measure, and noncompact manifolds with bounded geometry endowed with the Riemannian volume measure. Another major goal of the paper is to simplify the axiomatization of $RCD(K,\infty)$ (even in case of finite reference measure) replacing the assumption of strict $CD(K,\infty)$ with the classic notion of $CD(K,\infty)$.

math.DG↗

Sobolev spaces in metric measure spaces: reflexivity and lower semicontinuity of slope

In this paper we make a survey of some recent developments of the theory of Sobolev spaces $W^{1,q}(X,\sfd,\mm)$, $1<q<\infty$, in metric measure spaces $(X,\sfd,\mm)$. In the final part of the paper we provide a new proof of the reflexivity of the Sobolev space based on $Γ$-convergence; this result extends Cheeger's work because no Poincaré inequality is needed and the measure-theoretic doubling property is weakened to the metric doubling property of the support of $\mm$. We also discuss the lower semicontinuity of the slope of Lipschitz functions and some open problems.

math.AP↗

Compactness of special functions of bounded higher variation

Given an open set Ω\subset\R^m and n>1, we introduce the new spaces GB_nV(Ω) of Generalized functions of bounded higher variation and GSB_nV(Ω) of Generalized special functions of bounded higher variation that generalize, respectively, the space B_nV introduced by Jerrard and Soner and the corresponding SB_nV space studied by De Lellis. In this class of spaces, which allow the description of singularities of codimension n, the distributional jacobian Ju need not have finite mass: roughly speaking, finiteness of mass is not required for the (m-n)-dimensional part of Ju, but only finiteness of size. In the space GSB_nV we are able to provide compactness of sublevel sets and lower semicontinuity of Mumford-Shah type functionals, in the same spirit of the codimension 1 theory.

math.AP↗