On the lifting and approximation theorem for nonsmooth vector fields (Q2879958)

The authors prove a version of the classical Rothschild-Stein lifting/approximation theorem for sub-Laplacians associated to Hörmander families of vector fields. Key novelties in the authors' approach include a full treatment of both lifting and approximation by a nilpotent Lie group structure in the category of weighted vector fields, and an extension of the theory to the nonsmooth setting.NEWLINENEWLINEMore precisely, the authors consider second-order differential operators of the form NEWLINE\[NEWLINE L = \sum_{i=1}^n X_i^2 + X_0 NEWLINE\]NEWLINE defined in a domain \(\Omega \subset {\mathbb R}^p\), where the vector fields \(X_i\) together with their iterated commutators up to some fixed level \(r\) span the tangent space at each point of \(\Omega\).NEWLINENEWLINEIn Section 1, they assume that the vector fields \(X_1,\dots,X_n\) have \(C^{r-1}\) coefficients while \(X_0\) has \(C^{r-2}\) coefficients. In such a setting, they prove the lifting theorem: There exist an integer \(m\) and vector fields \(\tilde{X}_i\) in \({\mathbb R}^{p+m}\) of the form NEWLINE\[NEWLINE \tilde{X}_i = X_i + \sum_{j=1}^m u_{ij}(x,t_1,\dots,t_{j-1}) \, \frac{\partial}{\partial t_j}, NEWLINE\]NEWLINE where \(t_1,\dots,t_m\) denote coordinates in \({\mathbb R}^m\) and the functions \(u_{ij}\) are polynomials such that the lifted vector fields \(\tilde{X}_i\) continue to verify Hörmander's condition and are free up to weight \(r\).NEWLINENEWLINESection 2 executes Rothschild and Stein's approximation procedure in the category of smooth vector fields. Here the authors also establish a Ball-Box theorem à la Nagel-Stein-Wainger.NEWLINENEWLINEIn Section 3, the authors generalize the results of Section 2 to the less regular setting of Section 1. This is done by combining the results of Section 2 with a natural procedure for approximating \(C^k\) vector fields by suitable Taylor expansions. In order to quantitatively estimate the resulting remainder terms, the authors introduce here an assumption slightly stronger than in Section 1: they assume that the vector fields \(X_1,\dots,X_n\) have \(C^{r-1,\alpha}\) coefficients while \(X_0\) has \(C^{r-2,\alpha}\) coefficients. Here \(\alpha \in (0,1]\) denotes a fixed parameter and \(C^{k,\alpha}\) denotes the space of functions whose \(k\)-th order iterated partial derivatives are \(\alpha\)-Hölder continuous. Under these assumptions, they prove that the lifted vector fields \(\tilde{X}_i\) can be approximated (in a certain precise sense) by a family of vector fields \(Y_i\) with respect to which the underlying space is equipped with the structure of a homogeneous Lie group with dilations; the vector fields \(Y_i\) remain free up to weight \(r\), are left invariant with respect to the group law, and are homogeneous of a suitable degree with respect to the dilations.