Riemannian manifold, global mean value inequality, Laplace equation, heat equation, weak volume growth condition (Q4954464)

Let \(M\) be a complete Riemannian manifold. For positive constants \(\lambda\) and \(T\) one says that \(M\) satisfies the parabolic mean value inequality \(PM_T(\lambda)\) if for each \(p\in M\) and \(t \in (0,T]\) and for any \(f(x,t) \geq 0\) satisfying \[ \left(\Delta - {\partial \over \partial t}\right) f(x,t) \geq 0 \] on \(B_p(\sqrt{t}) \times [0,t]\) one has \[ f(p,t) \leq {\lambda \over t V_p(\sqrt{t})} \int_0^t \int_{B_p(\sqrt{t})} f(x,s) dx ds . \] The first main result of the paper says that the parabolic mean value inequality \(PM_T(\lambda)\) implies the following upper bound on the heat kernel of \(M\): For any \(\varepsilon > 0 \) there is a constant \(C = C(\varepsilon) > 0\) such that \[ H(p,q,2t) \leq {C \lambda^2 \over V_p(\sqrt{t})^{1/2} V_q(\sqrt{t})^{1/2}} \exp\left({-\text{ dist}(p,q)^2 \over 8(1+\varepsilon)t}\right) \] for all \(p,q \in M\) and \(t \in [0,T]\). It is also shown that under a volume growth condition an upper heat kernel bound of this kind implies property \(PM_T(\lambda)\). Moreover, it is shown that under a volume growth condition an upper bound on the Green's function implies a mean value property (which is weaker than the parabolic mean value inequality). Furthermore, the authors show that polynomial volume growth and a weak mean value inequality imply that the space of harmonic functions with polynomial growth of order at most \(d\) is finite dimensional. An explicit bound for the dimension is given. Finally, the authors give criteria for the Liouville property to hold (which states that any bounded harmonic function must be constant).