Sharp geometric rigidity of isometries on Heisenberg groups (Q2377367)

The authors prove a geometric rigidity estimate in the sub-Riemannian Heisenberg group \({\mathbb H}^n\), \(n>1\), in the spirit of previous results in Euclidean space by \textit{F. John} [Commun. Pure Appl. Math. 14, 391--413 (1961; Zbl 0102.17404)], \textit{Yu. G. Reshetnyak} [Stability theorems in geometry and analysis. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers (1994; Zbl 0925.53005)] or \textit{G. Friesecke} et al. [Commun. Pure Appl. Math. 55, No. 11, 1461--1506 (2002; Zbl 1021.74024)]. Their main result, stated as Theorem~1, is the following: Consider a John domain \(U\subset {\mathbb H}^n\), \(n>1\), with inner and outer radius \(\alpha\) and \(\beta\), respectively. Then, for every \(f\in I(1+\varepsilon,U)\), there is an isometry \(\theta\) satisfying \[ \int_U\exp\bigg(\bigg({\beta\over\alpha}\bigg)^{2n+3}{{N_1|D_hf(x)-D_h\theta(x)|}\over {\varepsilon}}\bigg)dx\leq 16\,|U|, \] and \[ \sup_{x\in U} d(f(x),\theta(x))\leq N_2{\beta^2\over\alpha}\,(\sqrt{\varepsilon}+\varepsilon), \] where \(N_1\) and \(N_2\) are constants only depending on \(n\), and \(D_h\) is the approximate horizontal differential. The class \(I(L,U)\), \(L\geq 1\), is introduced in Definition~3 and consists of mappings \(f\) in the Sobolev class \(W_{1,\mathrm{loc}}^1(U,{\mathbb H}^n)\) satisfying \(L^{-1}|\xi|\leq |D_hf(x)\xi|\leq L|\xi|\), where \(x\in U\) and \(\xi\) is a horizontal vector at \(x\). Dilations show that the proximity orders of Theorem~1 are asymptotically sharp. The proof follows Reshetnyak's approach. Previous results investigating the geometric rigidity problem for locally bi-Lipschitz mappings in the first Heisenberg group \({\mathbb H}^1\) were given by \textit{N. Arcozzi} and \textit{D. Morbidelli} [Comment. Math. Helv. 83, No. 1, 101--141 (2008; Zbl 1194.22008)], with non-optimal proximity orders. The first author [``Sharp geometric rigidity of isometries on the first Heisenberg group'', in preparation (2012)] has recently considered the case of the first Heisenberg group with methods different from those of Arcozzi and Morbidelli and those in this paper.