Subelliptic distances and powers of differential operators (Q1916310)

The author considers selfadjoint second-order linear partial differential operators with \(C^\infty\)-coefficients in \(\Omega\subset\mathbb{R}^n\) \[ P=\sum^n_{i,j=1} a_{ij}(x) D^2_{x_ix_j} +\cdots \] satisfying for some \(\varepsilon >0\) the sub-elliptic estimates \[ \|f\|_\varepsilon \leq C\bigl(\|Pf\|+ \|f\|\bigr), \quad f\in C_0^\infty (\Omega). \] Let \(P_1\) and \(P_2\) be as before; the author gives different results concerning the estimates for powers of \(P_1,P_2\): \[ \|P^r_1 f\|\leq C\bigl(\|P_2^s f\|+ \|f\|\bigr), \quad f\in C_0^\infty (\Omega) \] with \(r>0\), \(s>0\), in terms of analogous estimates for the associated sub-elliptic distances \(d_1(x,y)\), \(d_2(x,y)\), cf. \textit{C. L. Fefferman}, \textit{A. Sanchez-Calle} [Ann. Math., II. Ser. 124, 247-272 (1986; Zbl 0613.35002)].