arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Sebastiano Nicolussi Golo.
We characterize smooth maps between sub-Riemannian Lie groups that commute with sub-Laplacians. We show they are sub-Riemannian conformal submersions. Our work clarifies the analysis initiated on Carnot groups in \cite{MR2363343}. In particular, we show that the sub-Laplacian in a Carnot group determines the sub-Riemannian structure.
We prove that harmonic morphisms between sub-Riemannian Lie groups are smooth, are symmetries of the sub-Riemannian Laplacian and are conformal submersions that satisfy a particular PDE. Moreover, we give some partial results for harmonic morphisms beyond Lie groups. We show the existence of harmonic coordinates for harmonically homogeneous spaces, and that smooth harmonic morphisms are symmetries of the Laplacian in all sub-Riemannian manifolds. Finally, we compute the first variation of the horizontal energy along a harmonic morphism of sub-Riemannian Lie groups: it is given by a linear form on the Lie algebra of the target, the modular mismatch, which vanishes for Riemannian and Carnot targets, but surprisingly not in general. Therefore, unlike in the Riemannian case, harmonic morphisms of sub-Riemannian Lie groups need not be harmonic maps.
We quantitatively study the speed of convergence of geodesic Lie groups to their metric limits. For nilpotent geodesic Lie groups, we give estimates on the difference of the original metrics and the asymptotic metrics, while for general geodesic Lie groups, we give similar estimates for the difference of the original metrics and the tangent metrics. In both settings, our results sharpen existing bounds in the literature.
We consider Lie groups equipped with left-invariant subbundles of their tangent bundles and norms on them. On these sub-Finsler structures, we study the normal curves in the sense of control theory. We revisit the Pontryagin Maximum Principle using tools from convex analysis, expressing the normal equation as a differential inclusion involving the subdifferential of the dual norm. In addition to several properties of normal curves, we discuss their existence, the possibility of branching, and local optimality. Finally, we focus on polyhedral norms and show that normal curves have controls that locally take values in a single face of a sphere with respect to the norm.
We derive sharp estimates comparing asymptotic Riemannian or sub-Riemannian metrics in 2-step nilpotent Lie groups. For each metric, we construct a Carnot metric whose square remains at bounded distance from the square of the original metric. In particular, we deduce the analogue of a conjectire by Burago-Margulis: every 2-step nilpotent Riemannian Lie group is at bounded distance from its asymptotic cone. As a consequence, we obtain a refined estimate of the error term in the asymptotic expansion of the volume of the (sub-)Riemannian metric balls. To achive this, we develop a novel technique to efficiently perturb rectifiable curves modifying their endpoints in a prescribed vertical direction.
We study conditions under which quasi-conformal homeomorphisms are quasi-isometries. We show that if two nilpotent geodesic Lie groups are quasi-conformally homeomorphic, then they are quasi-isometrically equivalent. We also give more general results beyond the nilpotent case. In particular, we show that quasi-conformal homeomorphisms between geodesic Lie groups are quasi-isometries whenever the spaces have strict parabolic or hyperbolic conformal type. As a consequence, quasi-conformal homeomorphisms between geodesic Lie groups with infinite fundamental group are quasi-isometries. The statements for Lie groups are deduced from a more general study on metric measure spaces with uniformly locally bounded geometry.
In the first Heisenberg group, we study entire, locally Sobolev intrinsic graphs that are stable for the sub-Riemannian area. We show that, under appropriate integrability conditions for the derivatives, the intrinsic graph must be an intrinsic plane, i.e., a coset of a two dimensional subgroup. This result extends \cite{arXiv:1809.04586} beyond the Lipschitz class.
In this paper, we provide an alternative appraoch to an expectaion of Fässler et al [J. Geom. Anal. 2016] by showing that a metrically quasiregular mapping between two equiregular subRiemannian manifolds of homogeneous dimension $Q\geq 2$ has a negligible branch set. One main new ingredient is to develop a suitable extension of the generalized Pansu differentiability theory, in spirit of earlier works by Margulis-Mostow, Karmanova and Vodopyanov. Another new ingredient is to apply the theory of Sobolev spaces based on upper gradients developed by Heinonen, Koskela, Shanmugalingam and Tyson to establish the necessary analytic foundations.
In this paper we characterize the geodesic dimension $N_{GEO}$ and give a new lower bound to the curvature exponent $N_{CE}$ on Sard-regular Carnot groups. As an application, we give an example of step-two Carnot group on which $N_{CE} > N_{GEO}$: this answers a question posed by Rizzi in arXiv:1510.05960v4 [math.MG].
We introduce and study the notion of $C^1_\mathbb{H}$-regular submanifold with boundary in sub-Riemannian Heisenberg groups. As an application, we prove a version of Stokes' Theorem for $C^1_\mathbb{H}$-regular submanifolds with boundary that takes into account Rumin's complex of differential forms in Heisenberg groups.
We solve the contact equivalence problem for generalised sub-Laplacians on $\He^2$ and show that the family of sub-Laplacians on $\He^2$ modulo contact equivalence, is parameterised by $\R^+$
Jet spaces on $\mathbb R^n$ have been shown to have a canonical structure of stratified Lie groups (also known as Carnot groups). We construct jet spaces over stratified Lie groups adapted to horizontal differentiation and show that these jet spaces are themselves stratified Lie groups. Furthermore, we show that these jet spaces support a prolongation theory for contact maps, and in particular, a Bäcklund type theorem holds. A byproduct of these results is an embedding theorem that shows that every stratified Lie group of step $s+1$ can be embedded in a jet space over a stratified Lie group of step $s$.
We show that vector fields $b$ whose spatial derivative $D_xb$ satisfies a Orlicz summability condition have a spatially continuous representative and are well-posed. For the case of sub-exponential summability, their flows satisfy a Lusin (N) condition in a quantitative form, too. Furthermore, we prove that if $D_xb$ satisfies a suitable exponential summability condition then the flow associated to $b$ has Sobolev regularity, without assuming boundedness of ${\rm div}_xb$. We then apply these results to the representation and Sobolev regularity of weak solutions of the Cauchy problem for the transport and continuity equations.
We discuss Meyers-Serrin's type results for smooth approximations of functions $b=b(t,x):\mathbb{R}\times\mathbb{R}^n\to\mathbb{R}^m$, with convergence of an energy of the form \[ \int_{\mathbb{R}}\int_{\mathbb{R}^n} w(t,x) φ\left(|Db(t,x)|\right)\mathrm{d} x \mathrm{d} t\,, \] where $w>0$ is a suitable weight function, and $φ:[0,\infty)\to [0,\infty)$ is a convex function with $φ(0)=0$ having exponential or sub-exponential growth.
In this paper we discuss the convergence of distances associated to converging structures of Lipschitz vector fields and continuously varying norms on a smooth manifold. We prove that, under a mild controllability assumption on the limit vector-fields structure, the distances associated to equi-Lipschitz vector-fields structures that converge uniformly on compact subsets, and to norms that converge uniformly on compact subsets, converge locally uniformly to the limit Carnot-Carathéodory distance. In the case in which the limit distance is boundedly compact, we show that the convergence of the distances is uniform on compact sets. We show an example in which the limit distance is not boundedly compact and the convergence is not uniform on compact sets. We discuss several examples in which our convergence result can be applied. Among them, we prove a subFinsler Mitchell's Theorem with continuously varying norms, and a general convergence result for Carnot-Carathéodory distances associated to subspaces and norms on the Lie algebra of a connected Lie group.
We study homogeneous metric spaces, by which we mean connected, locally compact metric spaces whose isometry group acts transitively. After a review of some classical results, we use the Gleason-Iwasawa-Montgomery-Yamabe-Zippin structure theory to show that for all positive $ε$, each such space is $(1,ε)$-quasi-isometric to a connected metric Lie group. Next, we develop the structure theory of Lie groups to show that every homogeneous metric manifold is homeomorphically roughly isometric to a quotient space of a connected amenable Lie group, and roughly isometric to a simply connected solvable metric Lie group. Third, we investigate solvable metric Lie groups in more detail, and expound on and extend work of Gordon and Wilson and of Jablonski on these, showing, for instance, that connected, simply connected solvable Lie groups may be made isometric if and only if they have the same real-shadow. Finally, we extend a result of Kivioja and Le Donne to show that homogeneous metric spaces that admit a metric dilation are all metric Lie groups with an automorphic dilation.
We study the behavior of Lipschitz functions on intrinsic $C^1$ submanifolds of Heisenberg groups: our main result is their almost everywhere tangential Pansu differentiability. We also provide two applications: a Lusin-type approximation of Lipschitz functions on $\HH$-rectifiable sets, and a coarea formula on $\HH$-rectifiable sets that completes the program started in~\cite{JNGV}.
We approach the quasi-isometric classification questions on Lie groups by considering low dimensional cases and isometries alongside quasi-isometries. First, we present some new results related to quasi-isometries between Heintze groups. Then we will see how these results together with the existing tools related to isometries can be applied to groups of dimension 4 and 5 in particular. Thus we take steps towards determining all the equivalence classes of groups up to isometry and quasi-isometry. We completely solve the classification up to isometry for simply connected solvable groups in dimension 4, and for the subclass of groups of polynomial growth in dimension 5.