Graphs of bounded variation, existence and local boundedness of non-parametric minimal surfaces in Heisenberg groups (Q468543)

The theory of Carnot-Carathéodory spaces, also known as sub-Riemannian spaces, plays an important role in the contemporary development of analysis and geometry. The most important nontrivial example of such spaces is provided by the Heisenberg group \(\mathbb H^n=\mathbb R^{2n+1}\). In the group \(\mathbb H^n\) there is a one-parameter group of non-isotropic dilatations and the Lie algebra \(\mathfrak{h}_n\) of left invariant vector fields. \(\mathbb H^n\) is endowed with the homogeneous norm \(||P||_\infty\) and with the left-invariant and homogeneous distance \(d_\infty\) that is equivalent to the standard Carnot-Caratéodory distance \(d_c\). Following the classical theory of sets with finite perimeter, \textit{L. Capogna} et al. [Commun. Anal. Geom. 2, No.2, 203--215 (1994; Zbl 0864.46018)] introduced in an open set \(\Omega\subset\mathbb H^n\) the \(\mathbb H\)-perimeter \(|\partial E|\) of a measurable set \(E\subset\mathbb H^n\). A set \(E\subset\mathbb H^n\) is said to be a minimizer of the \(\mathbb H\)-perimeter in an open set \(\Omega\subset\mathbb H^n\) if it has locally finite \(\mathbb H\)-perimeter in \(\Omega\). A set \(S\subset\mathbb H^n\) is \(t\)-graph in \(\mathbb H^n\) if it is a graph with respect to the nonhorizontal vector \(T\). The set of functions with bounded variations in a set is \(BV\) and the set of functions with bounded \(t\)-variations is \(BV_t\). In this paper, the authors deal with the problem of existence and regularity for generalized non-parametric minimal hypersurfaces in the setting of the Heisenberg group \(\mathbb H^n\). They introduce and study the classes of \(t\)- and intrinsic graphs of bounded variation. The authors prove existence and local boundedness results for those graphs locally minimizing the sub-Riemannian area. For example, they show that for a bounded open subset \({\mathcal U}\subset\mathbb R^{2n}\) the sets \(BV_t({\mathcal U})\) and \(BV({\mathcal U})\) coincide. Also, a local boundedness result which is sharp at least in the case of \(t\)-graphs for minimal graphs is proved.