Bochner-Weitzenböck formula and Li-Yau estimates on Finsler manifolds (Q2445299)

In this paper, \(M\) is a smooth Finsler manifold of finite dimension. The Finsler structure \(F:TM\to [0,+\infty)\) is assumed to be smooth outside the zero section and twice differentiable with positive definite Hessian \(g_v\) (\(v\in TM\)). It is only assumed \textit{positive} homogeneity, that is \(F(cv)=cF(v)\) for all \(v\in TM\) and \(c\geq 0\). Let \(D\) and \(\nabla\) denote the covariant derivative and the gradient on \(M\) with respect to the Finsler structure \(F\). Let \(m\) be a fixed positive \(C^{\infty}\) measure \(m\) on \(M\). Then \(\mathrm{div}_m\) denotes the divergence with respect to this measure, and \(\Delta\) the Laplacian on \(M\) given by \(\Delta u=\mathrm{div}_m(\nabla u)\) for smooth \(u\). Let \(\Delta^{\nabla u}\) denote the linearisation of the Laplacian \(\Delta\) in the direction of \(\nabla u\). If \(x\in M\) and \(\eta\) is a geodesic with initial speed \(v\in T_xM\), we indicate with \(\mathrm{vol}_{\dot{\eta}}\) the volume form of \(g_{\dot{\eta}}\); we then decompose \(m\) along \(\eta\) as \(m=e^{-\Psi}\mathrm{vol}_{\dot{\eta}}\), and consider the weighted Ricci curvature \(\mathrm{Ric}_{\infty}(v)=\mathrm{Ric}(v)+(\Psi\circ\eta)''(0)\) where \(\mathrm{Ric}\) is the usual Ricci curvature with respect to the Finsler structure \(F\). Finally, let \(\|\cdot\|_{HS(v)}\) denote the trace (i.e., Hilbert-Schmidt) norm with respect to \(g_{v}\). The main result of the paper states that (Bochner-Weitzenböck formula): \[ \Delta^{\nabla u}\left(\frac12 F(\nabla u)^2\right)-D(\Delta u)(\nabla u)=\mathrm{Ric}_{\infty}(\nabla u)+\|\nabla^2 u\|^2_{HS(\nabla u)} \] for each smooth \(u\) in \(M\). This formula is also stated in the distributional sense and extended to weakly differentiable functions. It has several important consequences related to the curvature-dimension condition and the heat flow (see [the first author, Calc. Var. Partial Differ. Equ. 36, No. 2, 211--249 (2009; Zbl 1175.49044)] and [the authors, Commun. Pure Appl. Math. 62, No. 10, 1386--1433 (2009; Zbl 1176.58012)] and the references therein). In particular, let \(P_t\) denote the semigroup generated by the Laplacian \(\Delta\) (i.e., \(u_t=P_tu\) is a solution to the heat equation in \([0,T]\times M\)). Then the authors prove that if \(M\) is compact and \(\mathrm{Ric}_{\infty}\geq K\) for some \(K\in \mathbb R\), then \(\|F(\nabla u_t)\|_{L^{\infty}}\leq e^{-Kt}\|F(\nabla u_0)\|_{L^{\infty}}\) for \(t\in [0,T]\). It is unknown whether the compactness of \(M\) can be replaced by completeness.