On the subanalyticity of Carnot-Carathéodory distances (Q5942604)

Let \(M\) be a \(C^\infty\) Riemannian manifold and \(\Delta\) a smooth vector subbundle of the tangent bundle \(TM\) of \(M\). The authors mainly treat the case of real analytic \(M\) and \(\Delta\), where \(\Delta\) is bracket generating in a natural sense. Applying a general existence theorem for optimal controls, one can define the so-called Carnot-Carathéodory distance between two points \(q_1\), and \(q_2\), sufficiently near to each other. Fixing a point \(q_0\in M\) denote by \(\rho(q)\) the distance \(d(q,q_0)\). The function \(\rho\) is known to be never smooth in a punctured neighborhood of \(q_0\). The main results of this paper concern the subanalyticity properties of \(\rho\) in the case of a generic real analytic \(\Delta\). The authors prove, among other things, that generically, \(\rho\) is subanalytic if \(\dim \leq (k-1)k+1\), where \(k\) is the rank of \(\Delta\).