First variation of the Hausdorff measure of non-horizontal submanifolds in sub-Riemannian stratified Lie groups (Q2404232)

As stated in the abstract, the authors find ``necessary conditions for a non-horizontal submanifold of a sub-Riemannian stratified Lie group to be of minimal measure.'' Throughout, the authors consider a submanifold \(M\) of codimension \(p\) of a Carnot group \(\mathbb{G}\). They define such a manifold to be \textit{non-horizontal} if \(TM + D = T\mathbb{G}\), where \(D\) is the horizontal distribution of \(\mathbb{G}\). The measure \(\mu\) on \(M\) is defined by \(d\mu = |(\tau_M(x))_{d}| d\mathrm{vol}_h(x)\), where \((\tau_M(x))_{d}\) is the part of maximal degree \(d= \dim_{\text{Hau}}(M)\) of the \((n-p)\)-tangent vector to \(M\) at \(x\in M\). This choice of measure is motivated by a formula proven for non-horizontal submanifolds proven by \textit{V. Magnani} and \textit{D. Vittone} [J. Reine Angew. Math. 619, 203--232 (2008; Zbl 1146.53022)]. In Theorem 2, the authors show \(d\mu = f^{p+1}\wedge \cdots \wedge f^n\), where \(f^{p+1} , \ldots , f^n\) is the dual basis to a suitable local basis of sections of \(TM\). To prove this, the authors observe that the non-horizontality assumption implies that all points of \(M\) have maximum degree \(\dim_{\text{Hau}} \mathbb{G} -p\). Now fix an immersion \(i: M\to \mathbb{G}\) such that \(i(M)\) in \(G\) is a non-horizontal manifold and suppose \(F:(-\epsilon,\epsilon)\times M\to \mathbb{G}\) is a variation of \(i\) through immersions. The authors pull back measures on \(F_u(M)\), \(u\in (-\epsilon,\epsilon)\), to obtain a family of measures \(\Gamma(u)\) on \(M\). In Corollary 1, the authors prove that if one defines \(V(u) = \int_M \Gamma(u)\), then an immersion \(i\) is a critical point for \(V\) among all immersions \(f:M\to \mathbb{G}\) with \(f=i\) on \(\partial M\) if and only \(H+\sigma =0\) on the orthogonal complement of \(TM\cap D \) in \(D\), where \(H\) is the mean curvature and \(\sigma\) is the mean torsion of \(i(M)\). They prove this as a consequence of Theorem 4, which provides a formula for the derivative of \(\Gamma\) at \(0\). The authors then provide several examples (with justification) of non-horizontal submanifolds in the first and second Heisenberg groups.