Curvature-dimension inequalities and Ricci lower bounds for sub-Riemannian manifolds with transverse symmetries (Q509105)

In Riemannian geometry, the curvature-dimension inequalities provide an alternative approach to the study of manifolds with a lower bound on Ricci curvature. Namely, denoting by \(\Delta\) the Laplace operator, the curvature-dimension inequality \[ \frac{1}{2}\Delta(\nabla f,\nabla f)-(\nabla f,\nabla\Delta f)\geq\frac{1}{n}(\Delta f)^2+C(\nabla f,\nabla f) \] for all smooth functions on an \(n\)-dimensional manifold is equivalent to the inequality \(\mathrm{Ric}\geq C\) and Bakry, Ledoux and others have shown that many results on manifolds with a lower Ricci bound can be rederived from the curvature-dimension inequality in combination with a systematic use of properties of the heat semigroup. The paper under review considers smooth manifolds endowed with a smooth measure and a smooth second-order diffusion operator and proposes a generalized curvature-dimension inequality in this setting. The application of this setting is to complete sub-Riemannian manifolds with transverse symmetries of Yang-Mills type, where a number of results are solely deduced from the curvature-dimension inequality. In particular, the authors prove a sub-Riemannian generalization of the Li-Yau inequalities, whose classical proof in Riemannian geometry used the exponential map which however in sub-Riemannian geometry is not a local diffeomorphism. Other results in the above-mentioned general setting include a scale-invariant parabolic Harnack inequality, so-called off-diagonal Gaussian upper bounds, a Liouville-type theorem and a Bonnet-Myers type theorem.