The graphs of Lipschitz functions and minimal surfaces on Carnot groups (Q1760542)

Given a Carnot group \({\mathbb G}\), a nilpotent graded Lie group \(\tilde{\mathbb G}\), \(E\subset {\mathbb G}\), and a map \(\varphi:E\to \tilde{\mathbb G}\), the author introduces the notion of ``polynomially \(hc\)-differentiability'' of \(\varphi\) with respect to a quasimetric on \(\varphi(E)\times\varphi(E)\) in Definition~9. Lipschitz mappings with respect to the sub-Riemannian structures satisfy this property. Under the technical assumptions given in Description~1 of the paper, the author proves in Theorem~2 the polynomially \(hc\)-differentiability of \(\varphi_\Gamma:D\subset {\mathbb G}\to\tilde{\mathbb G}\) (Definition~10) and an area formula for the intrinsic measure (Definition~12). Variational formulas for the intrinsic measure and consequences are obtained in Theorem~3. Related variational formulas for graphs in the sub-Riemannian Heisenberg group can be found by \textit{J.-H. Cheng} et al. [Math. Ann. 337, No. 2, 253--293 (2007; Zbl 1109.35009)] and \textit{R. Monti} et al. [Boll. Unione Mat. Ital. (9) 1, No. 3, 709--727 (2008; Zbl 1204.53048)].