The Cheeger constant of simply connected, solvable Lie groups (Q4452253)

Let \(G\) be a simply connected solvable Lie group whose Lie algebra \({\mathfrak g}\) is equipped with a norm \(\|\cdot\|\) defined by a scalar product. Then the corresponding left-invariant metric makes \(G\) into a complete (noncompact) Riemannian manifold, hence we can define its Cheeger isoperimetric constant by \[ h(H)=\inf_{K\subset G} \frac{\text{area}\,(\partial K)}{\text{vol}\,(K)}, \] where \(K\) runs through the set of all connected open submanifolds of \(G\) that have compact closure and smooth boundary. The main result of the paper under review (Corollary~10) is a formula for \(h(G)\) in terms of the Lie algebra \({\mathfrak g}\) of \(G\), namely \[ h(G)=\max\{\text{tr}\,(\text{ad}_{\mathfrak g}\, X)\mid X\in{\mathfrak g},\;\| X\|=1\}. \]