Non-divergence operators structured on homogeneous Hörmander vector fields: heat kernels and global Gaussian bounds (Q2668096)

Assume that \(X_1, ..., X_m\) is a family of real smooth vector fields defined in \(\mathbf{R}^ n\), 1-homogeneous with respect to a nonisotropic family of dilations and satisfying Hörmander's rank condition at 0. The vector fields are not assumed to be translation invariant with respect to any Lie group structure. Consider the nonvariational evolution operator \[ H := \sum_{ i,j=1}^m a_{i,j} (t, x)X_iX_j - \partial_t, \] where \(\{a_{i,j}\} \) is a symmetric uniformly positive \(m \times m\) matrix and the entries \(a_{ij}\) are bounded Hölder continuous functions on \(\mathbf{R}^{n+1}\) , with respect to the ``parabolic'' distance induced by the vector fields. The main result of this paper is the existence of a global heat kernel \(\Gamma(\cdot; y,s) \in C^{2,\alpha}_{X,\mathrm{loc}}(\mathbf{R}^{n+1} \backslash {(y,s)})\) for \(H\), with \(\Gamma\) satisfies two-sided Gaussian bounds and \(\partial_t \Gamma\), \(X_i\Gamma\), \(X_iX_j\Gamma\) satisfying upper Gaussian bounds on every strip \(\mathbf{R}^n \times [0,T]\). Lastly, the authors prove a scale-invariant parabolic Harnack inequality for \(H\), and, as a by-product, also a Harnack inequality for the corresponding stationary operator \[ L := \sum_{ i,j=1}^m a_{i,j} (t, x)X_iX_j \] with Hölder continuous coefficients.