No label defined (Q4339422)

This paper establishes that a Fefferman-Phong type inequality \[ \int_\Omega \bigl|u(x) \bigr|^2 m(x,V)dx \leq C\int_\Omega \sum^m_{i=1} \bigl|X_i(x)u(x) \bigr|^2 dx+\int_\Omega \bigl|u(x) \bigr|^2dx, \] where \(m(x,V)\) is a weight function, holds for degenerate vector fields, in particular, Hörmander and Grushin type and some nonsmooth vector fields. Applications to the \(L^p\) estimates for subelliptic Schrödinger operators \(-\sum^m_{k=1} X^2_k(x) +V(x)\) are given, where \(X_1,X_2, \dots,X_m\) are generators of a stratified nilpotent group and \(V\) is a nonnegative group polynomial or satisfies a certain reverse Hölder condition.