Poincaré inequality for weighted first order Sobolev spaces on loop spaces (Q5952328)

Let \(E\) be the loop space over a compact manifold endowed with a torsion skew symmetric connection. Let \({\mathcal L}_D\) be the Ornstein-Uhlenbeck operator on a connected component \(D\) of \(E\) and let \(V\) denote the restriction to \(D\) of the potential in the logarithmic Sobolev inequality (found by Gross for groups, and then by Aida, Gong, Ma). Then the Schrödinger operator \(V-{\mathcal L}_D\) has a spectral gap (at its bottom) and a unique ground state. This answers positively a conjecture by L. Gross. The proof is based on results by Aida and Hino, and on new results on Dirichlet forms, which are first established in an abstract setting, and then applied to the loop space case.