Complex Hamiltonian mechanics and parametrices for subelliptic Laplacians. I (Q1357492)

In this article (consisting of three parts) the authors, using the results of B. Gaveau and P. C. Greiner, extend the classical Hadamard-Kodaira expansion of the fundamental solution of second order elliptic operators to step 2 subelliptic operators \[ \Delta_X= {\textstyle {\frac12}} \sum_{j=1}^{2n} X_j^2+ \sum_{j=1}^{2n} a_jX_j+b \tag{1} \] where by step 2 subelliptic operator one means that the skew-symmetric matrix \((\Lambda_{jk})=(-1/2) \omega([X_j, X_k])\) is nonsingular at each point if \(\omega\) denotes a nowhere zero 1-form which annihilates \(X_1,\dots, X_{2n}\) and \(X= (X_1,X_2,\dots, X_{2n})\) is the set of linearly independent real vector fields in \(\mathbb{R}^{2n+1}\). The parametrix (fundamental solution modulo \(C^\infty\) error) \(K\) for \(\Delta_X\) has the following asymptotic expansion \[ K(x,t,x^0,t^0)\sim \sum_{n=0}^\infty \int_{-\infty}^\infty \Biggl( \frac{v_kg^k}{g^n}+ \omega_k g^k\log g\Biggr) d\tau \tag{2} \] where \(v_0(x,t,x^0,t^0, \tau)\) satisfies the associated homogeneous transport equation while the rest of \(v_k\)s and \(w_k\)s satisfy inhomogeneous transport equations, \(g(x,t,x^0,t^0,\tau)\) satisfies the Hamilton-Jacobi equation and is given in the form \[ g= \theta(0)t+ \int_0^\tau \Biggl[ \sum_{j=1}^{2n} \xi_j(s)\dot x_j(s)+ (\theta(s)- \theta(0))\dot t(s)- H(s) \Biggr] ds \] by the intermedium of the bicharacteristic curves associated to the Hamiltonian \[ H(x,t,\xi,\theta)= \frac12 \sum_{j=1}^{2n} [X_j(x,t, \xi,\theta)]^2 \quad\text{with }X_j(x,t, \xi,\theta)= ie^{ix\xi+ it\theta} X_je^{-ix\xi- it\theta}. \] In the first section (I) it is presented in detail the model operator on the Heisenberg group when the action \(g\) and the volume element \(v_0\) are explicitly constructed and (2) yields the exact fundamental solution for the model operator. At the same time the equations for the coefficients \(v_k, w_k\) are derived and a convienable choice of coordinates is put in evidence to obtain a reduction of the vector fields \(X_1, X_2,\dots, X_{2n}\).