Gevrey regularity for a class of sums of squares of monomial vector fields (Q2196627)

The paper is devoted to the problem of the analytic and Gevrey hypoellipticity of the sum-of-squares operators. The characteristic manifold is assumed to be symplectic of dimension 2. In the case of a second order degeneration, this grants analytic hypoellipticity, see for example \textit{F. Trèves} [Commun. Partial Differ. Equations 3, 475--642 (1978; Zbl 0384.35055)], however for higher order degeneration the result fails, and the optimal regularity is expressed in terms of Gevrey hypoellipticity. In the present paper the authors provide a very precise investigation. The vector fields are assumed to have monomial coefficients. Allowing different degenerations in the different variables, such hypothesis approaches the general case, and several results in literature are recaptured and improved. The sharp Gevrey order of regularity is determined on the Newton polyhedron defined by the powers in the monomials. Basic tools of the proofs are the a-priori estimates for sum-of-squares by \textit{L. P. Rothschild} and \textit{E. M. Stein} [Acta Math. 137, 247--320 (1977; Zbl 0346.35030)].