Geometry of locally compact groups of polynomial growth and shape of large balls (Q473139)

In this paper, \(G\) is a locally compact group of polynomial growth equipped with a compact symmetric generating subset \(G\) and a left invariant measure \(\mathrm{vol}_G\), and for any positive integer, \(\Omega^n\) denotes the \(n\)-times product set \(\Omega\times \ldots\times\Omega\). The author studies the asymptotic behavior of \textit{periodic pseudo-distances} on \(G\), that is, pseudo-distances that are invariant under a co-compact subgroup of \(G\) and satisfy a weak kind of existence of geodesics axiom. As a consequence, he obtains the following: There exists \(c(\Omega)>0\) and an integer \(d(\Omega)\geq 0\) depending on \(G\) only such that \[ \lim_{n\to\infty}\frac{\mathrm{vol}_G(\Omega^n)}{n^{d(G)}}=c(\Omega). \] The integer \(n(d)\) is the growth exponent of a naturally associated graded nilpotent Lie group, the asymptotic cone of \(G\) and the constant \(c(\Omega)\) is interpreted as the volume of the unit ball of a sub-Riemannian Finsler metric on this nilpotent Lie group. This result extends a result of \textit{P. Pansu} [Ergodic Theory Dyn. Syst. 3, 415--445 (1983; Zbl 0509.53040)]. The author also proves the following: There exists a connected and simply connected solvable Lie group \(S\) of type \((R)\) which is weakly commensurable to \(G\). Such a Lie group is called a Lie shadow of \(G\). A direct consequence of the last mentioned result is that if \(\rho\) belongs to a class of metrics called \textit{periodic pseudo-distances} on \(G\) (this class includes both left-invariant word metrics on \(G\) and geodesic metrics that are left-invariant under a co-compact subgroup of \(G\)), then \((G,\rho)\) is \((1,C)\)-quasi-isometric to \((S,\rho_S)\) for some finite \(C>0\), where \(S\) is a connected and simply connected solvable Lie group of type \((R)\) and \((\rho_S)\) some periodic metric on \(S\). Another result obtained is the following: Let \(S\) be a simply connected solvable Lie group with polynomial growth. Let \(\rho\) be a periodic pseudo-distance on \(S\) which is invariant under a co-compact subgroup \(H\) of \(S\). On the manifold \(S\) one can put a new Lie group structure which turns \(S\) into a stratified nilpotent Lie group, the graded nilshadow of \(S\), and a sub-Finsler metric \(d_\infty (x,y)\) on \(S\) which is left-invariant for this new group structure such that \[ \frac{\rho(e,g)}{d_\infty(e,g)}\to 1 \] as \(g\to\infty\) in \(S\). The paper contains several other results on locally compact groups of polynomial growth.