The strong maximum principle and the Harnack inequality for a class of hypoelliptic non-Hörmander operators (Q332191)

The authors consider a class of hypoelliptic second-order operators \(\mathcal{L}\) in divergence form, arising from CR geometry and Lie group theory, and they prove several qualitative estimates: Strong and Weak Maximum Principles and Harnack Inequality. What it is worth to be mentioned, the operators are not assumed in the Hörmander hypoellipticity class, nor to satisfy subelliptic estimates or Muckenhoupt-type degeneracy conditions. Their results hold true in the infinitely-degenerate case and for operators which are not necessarily sums of squares. The authors use a Control Theory result on hypoellipticity to recover a meaningful geometric information on connectivity and maxima propagation, even in the case of absence of any maximal rank condition. The Harnack theorem is obtained via a weak Harnack inequality by means of a Potential Theory argument and the solvability of the Dirichlet problem for \(\mathcal{L}\). This very interesting result implies a Unique Continuation property for the \(\mathcal{L}\)-harmonic functions for operators \(\mathcal{L}\) with \(C^\omega\) coefficients.