The Caffarelli-Kohn-Nirenberg inequalities on complete manifolds (Q2474595)

This article highlights the importance of the Caffarelli-Kohn-Nirenberg inequality [\textit{L. Cafferelli} et al., Compos. Math. 53, 259--275 (1984; Zbl 0563.46024)] and the sharp Nash inequality [\textit{E. A. Carlen} and \textit{M. Loss}, Int. Math. Res. Not. 1993, No.~7, 213--215 (1993; Zbl 0822.35018)] as a means of characterizing Euclidean space within the family of complete open Riemannian manifolds of non-negative Ricci curvature. For appropriately defined parameters, the Caffarelli-Kohn-Nirenberg inequality states that there exists a positive constant \(C\) such that \[ \int_{\mathbb R^n} | x |^{\gamma r} | f |^r \thinspace dx \leq C \left( \int_{\mathbb R^n} | x |^{\alpha p} | \nabla f |^p \thinspace dx \right)^{1\over p} \left( \int_{\mathbb R^n} | x |^{\beta} | f |^{p(r-1) \over p-1} \thinspace dx \right)^{p-1\over p} \] holds for every compactly supported smooth function \(f\) on Euclidean space \({\mathbb R}^n\). The author finds the optimal value of \(C\) provided an additional explicit restriction is placed upon the parameters. Then, he shows that if the analogous sharp inequality holds for compactly supported smooth functions on a complete open Riemannian manifold \(M\) of non-negative Ricci curvature, then \(M\) is isometric to \({\mathbb R}^n\). A similar conclusion holds when the Caffarelli-Kohn-Nirenberg inequality is replaced by the Nash inequality. The result about the Nash inequality answers a problem posed in \textit{M. Ledoux} [Commun. Anal. Geom. 7, 347--353 (1999; Zbl 0953.53025)].