Subelliptic harmonic maps from Carnot groups (Q1411089)

A simply connected Lie group \(G\) is called a Carnot group if there exists an \(r\geq 1\) such that its Lie algebra \(g\) admits a vector space decomposition \(g=V_1+V_2+\cdots +V_r\) and : (1) \(g\) is stratified, i.e., \([V_1,V_j]=V_{j+1}\) for \(1\leq j\leq r-1;\) (2) \(g\) is \(r\)-nilpotent, i.e., \([V_j,V_r]=\{0\}\) for \(1\leq j\leq r.\) The smallest \(r\geq 1\) is called the step of \(G\). For a Carnot group \(G\) of step \(r\geq 2\), the left invariant basis \(X_1,X_2, \cdots, X_m\) for \(V_1\) is called the horizontal directions and the left invariant vector fields of \(V_j\) for \(2\leq j\leq r\) are called commutator directions in the sense that they are obtained as commutators of order \(j\) of linear combinations of \( X_1,X_2, \cdots, X_m\). If \(f\) is a function defined on a bounded domain of \(\Omega \subset G,\) then \(Xf=(X_1f,\cdots, X_mf)\in \mathbb{R}^m\) denotes the horizontal gradient of \(f\). For \(1\leq p <\infty,\) let \(S^{1,p}(\Omega)\) be the set of \(L^p(\Omega)\) functions whose distributional horizontal gradient is \(L^p(\Omega)\). For \(L\geq 1\), define \(S^{1,p}(\Omega, \mathbb{R}^L)=\{f=(f_1,\cdots,f_L): \Omega \to \mathbb{R}^L \mid f_i \in S^{1,p}(\Omega)\) for \(1\leq i\leq L\}\). For a compact Riemannian manifold \(N\) without boundary, which is isometrically embedded into \(\mathbb{R}^L\) for some \(L\geq 1\) via the Nash's embedding theorem, define \[ S^{1,2}(\Omega, N)=\{u\in S^{1,2}(\Omega, \mathbb{R}^L): u(x) \in N \text{ for a.e. }x \in \Omega\}. \] The horizontal Dirichlet energy functional \(E: S^{1,2}(\Omega, N) \to \mathbb{R}\) is defined by \[ E(u)\equiv \int_\Omega |Xu|^2(x)dx=\int_\Omega \sum_{i=1}^m \sum_{j=1}^L|X_iu^j|^2(x) dx. \] A \(u\in S^{1,2}(\Omega, N)\) is called a subelliptic harmonic map if it is a critical point of the horizontal Dirichlet energy functional \(E\) over \(S^{1,2}(\Omega,N).\) For \(1<p<\infty\), \(0<q<\infty\) and an open subset \(U\subset G\), the Morrey space \(M^{p,q}(U)\) is defined by \[ M^{p,q}(U)= \biggl\{f:U\to R: ||f||^p_{M^{p,q}(u)}\equiv \sup_{B_r(x)\subset U} r^{-q}\int_{B_r(x)}|f|^p(y)dy<\infty\biggr\}. \] Given a \(u\in S^{1,2}(\Omega, N)\) and \(\varepsilon >0\), a point \(x_0\in \Omega\) is a \(\varepsilon\)-regular point of \(u\) if there exists \(r_0=r_0(x_0,\varepsilon)>0\) such that \(Xu\in M^{2,Q-2}(B_{r_0}(x_0))\) and \(\|Xu\|_{M^{2,Q-2}(B_{r_0}(x_0))}\leq \varepsilon,\) where \(Q=\sum_{j=1}^rj\dim(V_j)\). Denote by \(\mathbb{R}^\varepsilon_u\subset \Omega\) as the set consisting of all \(\varepsilon\)-regular points of \(u\), and \(S^\varepsilon _u=\Omega-\mathbb{R}^\varepsilon_u.\) It follows from the definition that for any \(\varepsilon>0\) \(\mathbb{R}^\varepsilon_u\) is an open subset (possibly empty), and \(\mathbb{R}^{\varepsilon_1}_u\subset \mathbb{R}^{\varepsilon_2}_u\) for \(0<\varepsilon_1<\varepsilon_2\) so that \(\mathbb{R}_u\equiv \bigcap_{\varepsilon>0}\mathbb{R}^\varepsilon_u=\text{ lim}_{\varepsilon\to 0}\mathbb{R}^\varepsilon_u\) exists. The main theorem of the paper under review is then: Theorem A. For a Carnot group \(G\) and a domain \(\Omega\subset G\), let \(u\in S^{1,2}(\Omega,N)\) be a subelliptic harmonic map. Then there exists an \(\varepsilon_0>0\) such that any \(\varepsilon_0\)-regular point is a smooth point for \(u\). In particular, \(\mathbb{R}_u=\mathbb{R}^{\varepsilon_0}_u\) is open and \(u\in C^\infty(\mathbb{R}_u,N).\) As a consequence, any stationary subelliptic harmonic map is smooth away from a closed set with zero \(H^{Q-2}\) measure, which extends the regularity theory for the usual harmonic maps to the subelliptic setting.