Subelliptic estimates on compact semisimple Lie groups (Q550215)

Let \(G\) be a compact, semisimple and connected Lie group, endowed with the subelliptic structure generated by an orthonormal basis \(\mathfrak{X}\) of the orthogonal complement of the Cartan subalgebra. Let \(\Delta_{\mathfrak{X}}\) be the corresponding sub-Laplacian, and let \[ |\!|\mathfrak{X}^2f|\!|_{L^2(G)}^2:=\int_G \sum\limits_{(X,Y)\in\mathfrak{X}\times\mathfrak{X}}|XYf|^2\text{d}\mu \] be the norm of the matrix of second order horizontal derivatives. In this paper, the authors are concerned with the best constant \(C\) in the subelliptic Friedrichs-Knapp-Stein inequality \[ |\!|\mathfrak{X}^2f|\!|_{L^2(G)}^2\leq C|\!|\Delta_{\mathfrak{X}}f|\!|_{L^2(G)}. \] By looking at the case of \(SO(n),\) \(n\geq 4\), one sees that a semisimple compact Lie group can be endowed with a variety of subelliptic structures, whence the estimates on the constant \(C\) above may vary with the structure. The authors consider here a subelliptic structure that naturally appears as the result of the root-space decomposition associated with the Cartan subalgebra. By obtaining the sharp constants in the estimates \[ |\!|T_jf|\!|_{L^2(G)}\leq c_j|\!|\Delta_{\mathfrak{X}}f|\!|_{L^2(G)},\,\,\,\,1\leq j\leq r, \] where \(T_1,\ldots,T_r\) is a basis of the Cartan subalgebra, they obtain estimates on the constant \(C\) in the explicit case of \(SO(n).\) They finally give applications to the regularity of subelliptic \(p\)-energy minimizers.