Mean value property and harmonicity on Carnot-Carathéodory groups (Q2302350)

Let \(G\) be a Carnot group equipped with a sub-Riemannian geometry \((\mathcal{H}, \langle \cdot, \cdot \rangle )\) generated by the first layer of its stratification. In this paper, the authors study functions \(f : G \to \mathbb{R}\) which are \textit{harmonic} in the sense that they satisfy the mean value property over the balls of a given left-invariant (pseudo)distance \(d\) which is not necessarily the usual Carnot-Carathéodory distance. They obtain results about the regularity of such harmonic functions under various assumptions on the distance \(d\). A \textit{pseudonorm} \(\mathcal{N} : G \to [0,\infty)\) is a continuous function which is homogeneous (\(\mathcal{N}(\delta_r(p)) = r \mathcal{N}(p)\) for \(r > 0\) and \(p \in G\), where \(\delta_r\) is the group dilation); positive definite (\(\mathcal{N}(p) > 0\) when \(p\) is not the identity); and symmetric (\(\mathcal{N}(p) = \mathcal{N}(p^{-1})\)). Such a pseudonorm induces a left-invariant \textit{pseudo-distance} \(d\) defined by \(d(p,q) = \mathcal{N}(p^{-1} q)\); it is not necessarily a distance because it may only satisfy the triangle inequality up to a constant. Given an open set \(\Omega\subset G\), a function \(f : \Omega \to \mathbb{R}\) is said to be \textit{harmonic} on \(\Omega\) (with respect to \(d\)) on if we have \(f(p) = \frac{1}{|B(p,r)|} \int_{B(p,r)} f(q)\,dq\) for all closed \(d\)-balls \(B(p,r) \subset \Omega\). The measure is taken to be Haar measure. In this review, I will depart from the authors' terminology and write ``\(d\)-harmonic'' to emphasize that this property depends on the chosen pseudo-distance \(d\). The authors prove the following results about the regularity of \(d\)-harmonic functions: \textbullet\ If \(d\) is a true distance and is geodesic, then every \(d\)-harmonic function \(f\) enjoys a local horizontal Sobolev regularity, in the sense that its weak partial derivatives in horizontal directions (i.e. tangent to \(\mathcal{H}\)) are locally in \(L^s\) for every \(s>1\) (Theorem 4.1). This result also holds for so-called ``weakly harmonic'' functions which are only assumed to satisfy the mean value property on balls of certain radii. \textbullet\ If the homogeneous norm \(\mathcal{N}\) which induces \(d\) is sufficiently smooth, then every \(d\)-harmonic function is \(C^\infty\) (Theorem 4.2). \textbullet\ Let \(\mathcal{L}\) denote the left-invariant sub-Laplacian of \((G, \mathcal{H}, \langle \cdot, \cdot \rangle)\). If \(\mathcal{N}\) is an \(\mathcal{L}\)-gauge, i.e. satisfying \(\mathcal{L}(\mathcal{N}^{2-Q})=0\) where \(Q\) is the homogeneous dimension, then every \(d\)-harmonic function is in fact \(\mathcal{L}\)-harmonic, i.e. \(\mathcal{L} f=0\) (Theorem 4.3). Such an \(\mathcal{N}\) is closely related to the fundamental solution (Green's function) of \(\mathcal{L}\). As a corollary, the authors obtain a version of the Hadamard three-circle theorem (Corollary 4.1). The converse of Theorem 4.3 is not true in general: if \(\mathcal{N}\) is an \(\mathcal{L}\)-gauge, an \(\mathcal{L}\)-harmonic function need not satisfy the mean value property with respect to the balls of \(\mathcal{N}\). However, Theorem 4.4 shows that a weighted mean value property still holds. In Section 5, for the special case of the three-dimensional Heisenberg group \(G = \mathbb{H}_1\), the authors examine a class of polynomials which are \(\mathcal{L}\)-harmonic and do satisfy the unweighted mean value property. Finally, the authors remark that in \(G = \mathbb{H}_1\), if \(d\) is a true distance and is geodesic, then a continuous function \(f\) is \(d\)-harmonic as soon as it satisfies the mean value property on balls centered at the points of a dense set \(S\) (Observation 6.1).