Transverse Weitzenböck formulas and curvature dimension inequalities on Riemannian foliations with totally geodesic leaves (Q2396636)

The overall project this paper is part of, is to develop geometric analysis methods in sub-Riemannian geometry. It follows earlier work by the first author and collaborators, which generalizes results by Bochner, linking the geometry and topology of a Riemannian manifold with the analysis of a Laplace operator. The paper under review considers manifolds endowed with a Yang-Mills-type Riemannian foliation with totally geodesic leaves and a bracket generating horizontal distribution. They model a large class of sub-Riemannian structures with transverse symmetries, such as those arising in homogeneous spaces. The authors introduce a canonical one-parameter family of horizontal Laplacians on 1-forms and prove Weitzenböck-Bochner-type inequalities. Using them, they prove a curvature dimension estimate and the stochastic completeness of the heat semigroup. These are the main ingredients that realize Bochner's program, as shown in earlier papers by the first author and collaborators. The Weitzenböck-Bochner-type inequalities simplify the results in these papers and are interesting on their own right.