Riesz transforms for symmetric diffusion operators on complete Riemannian manifolds (Q879631)

Summary: Let \((M, g)\) be a complete Riemannian manifold, \(L=\Delta -\nabla \phi \cdot \nabla\) be a Markovian symmetric diffusion operator with an invariant measure \(d\mu(x)=e^{-\phi(x)}d\nu(x)\), where \(\phi\in C^2(M)\), \(\nu\) is the Riemannian volume measure on \((M, g)\). A fundamental question in harmonic analysis and potential theory asks whether or not the Riesz transform \(R_a(L)=\nabla(a-L)^{-1/2}\) is bounded in \(L^p(\mu)\) for all \(1<p<\infty\) and for certain \(a\geq 0\). An affirmative answer to this problem has many important applications in elliptic or parabolic PDEs, potential theory, probability theory, the \(L^p\)-Hodge decomposition theory and in the study of Navier-Stokes equations and boundary value problems. Using some new interplays between harmonic analysis, differential geometry and probability theory, we prove that the Riesz transform \(R_a(L)=\nabla(a-L)^{-1/2}\) is bounded in \(L^p(\mu)\) for all \(a>0\) and \(p\geq 2\) provided that \(L\) generates a ultracontractive Markovian semigroup \(P_t=e^{tL}\) in the sense that \(P_t 1=1\) for all \(t\geq 0\), \(\| P_t\| _{1, \infty} < Ct^{-n/2}\) for all \(t\in (0, 1]\) for some constants \(C>0\) and \(n > 1\), and satisfies \[ (K+c)^{-}\in L^{{n\over 2}+\varepsilon}(M, \mu) \] for some constants \(c\geq 0\) and \(\varepsilon>0\), where \(K(x)\) denotes the lowest eigenvalue of the Bakry-Emery Ricci curvature \(Ric(L)=Ric+\nabla^2\phi\) on \(T_x M\), i.e., \[ K(x)=\inf\limits\{Ric(L)(v, v): v\in T_x M, \| v\| =1\}, \quad\forall\;x\in M. \] Examples of diffusion operators on complete non-compact Riemannian manifolds with unbounded negative Ricci curvature or Bakry-Emery Ricci curvature are given for which the Riesz transform \(R_a(L)\) is bounded in \(L^p(\mu)\) for all \(p\geq 2\) and for all \(a>0\) (or even for all \(a\geq 0\)).