Stochastic properties of the Laplacian on Riemannian submersions (Q1938028)

Let \(M\) be a complete Riemannian manifold and \(\Delta\) the extension of the Laplace-Beltrami operator from the space \(C^\infty_0(M)\) of smooth functions with compact support on \(M\) to the set \(W^2_0(M) = \{f \in W^1_0(M): \Delta f \in L^2(M)\}\). Associated to \(\Delta\) is the heat semi-group of operators \(\{e^{t\Delta}\}_{t \geq 0}\), defined by the property that if \(u_0 \in L^2(M)\), then the function \(u(x,t) = \left(e^{t\Delta} u_0 \right)(x) \in C^\infty((0, \infty) \times M)\) solves the heat equation \[ \frac{\partial}{\partial t} u(x,t) = \Delta_x u(x,t),\quad u(x,t) @>>{L^2(M)}> u_0(x) \quad\text{as} \;t \to 0^+. \] A complete Riemannian manifold is called Feller if the heat semi-group preserves the set of continuous functions with compact support on \(M\). Pigola and Setti showed that if \(\phi:M \to N\) is an isometric immersion of a Riemannian \(m\)-manifold \(M\) into a Cartan-Hadamard \(n\)-manifold \(N\) with mean curvature vector \(H\) satisfying \(\int_M |H|^m d\mu_M < \infty\), then \(M\) is Feller. The present paper extends this result to the case where \(\phi:M \to N\) is a proper isometric immersion of \(M\) into a Cartan-Hadamard manifold \(N\) with bounded mean curvature vector \(H\) and \(\sup_M |H| < \infty\). In addition, stochastic methods are used to prove that for any Riemannian submersion \(\pi:M \to N\) with compact minimal fibers, \(M\) is Feller if and only if \(N\) is Feller.