On the H.-Q. Li inequality on step-two Carnot groups (Q6057773)

Let \(\mathbb{G}\) be a Carnot group of step two, equipped with its usual left-invariant sub-Riemannian structure. Denote by \(\nabla\) the sub-gradient on \(\mathbb{G}\), by \(\Delta\) the sub-Laplacian, and by \(e^{t\Delta}\) the corresponding heat semigroup. Such a group \(\mathbb{G}\) is said to satisfy the \emph{H.-Q. Li inequality} with constant \(C\) if we have \[ |\nabla e^{t \Delta} f| \le C e^{t\Delta} |\nabla f|, \qquad \text{for all } f \in C^\infty_c(\mathbb{G}), t > 0. \tag{*} \] Estimates of this kind, in the Riemannian setting, go back to [\textit{D. Bakry}, Proc., Lect. Notes Math. 1123, 145--174 (1985; Zbl 07755466)], and imply logarithmic Sobolev and Poincaré inequalities for the heat kernel. Currently it is not known whether all step two Carnot groups satisfy (*), but it has been shown to hold for some important examples, including the Heisenberg group [\textit{H.-Q. Li}, J. Funct. Anal. 236, No. 2, 369--394 (2006; Zbl 1106.22009); \textit{D. Bakry} et al., J. Funct. Anal. 255, No. 8, 1905--1938 (2008; Zbl 1156.58009)], anisotropic Heisenberg groups [\textit{Y. Zhang}, ``A note on gradient estimates for the heat semigroup on nonisotropic Heisenberg groups'', Preprint, \url{arXiv:2109.12590}], and H-type groups [\textit{N. Eldredge}, J. Funct. Anal. 258, No. 2, 504--533 (2010; Zbl 1185.43004); \textit{H.-Q. Li}, J. Reine Angew. Math. 646, 195--233 (2010; Zbl 1220.22002)]. In this article, the author discusses situations where the H.-Q. Li inequality (*) can be ``transferred'' from one or more groups where it is known to hold, to show that it also holds on another related group. Specifically, the author gives proofs of the following: \begin{itemize} \item Tensorization: if two groups \(\mathbb{G}, \mathbb{G}'\) satisfy (*) with constants \(C, C'\) respectively, then their direct product \(\mathbb{G} \times \mathbb{G}'\) also satisfies (*) with constant \(\max(C,C')\). \item Epimorphisms: suppose \(\mathbb{G}\) satisfies (*) with some constant \(C\), and that \(\mathbb{G}'\) is another step two Carnot group. Let \(\mathbb{G}\) be decomposed into its first and second layer as \(\mathbb{R}^q \times \mathbb{R}^m\), and likewise \(G'\) as \(\mathbb{R}^{q'} \times \mathbb{R}^{m'}\). Suppose that \(q' = q\), \(m' \le m\), and that there is a surjective linear map \(B : \mathbb{R}^m \to \mathbb{R}^{m'}\) such that \((x,u) \mapsto (x, Bu)\) is a surjective group homomorphism from \(\mathbb{G}\) onto \(\mathbb{G}'\). Then if \(\mathbb{G}\) satisfies (*), then so does \(\mathbb{G}'\), with the same constant. This is used to show that, since (*) is known to hold for H-type groups, it also holds for so-called generalized H-type groups as studied in [\textit{D. Barilari} and \textit{L. Rizzi}, Commun. Contemp. Math. 20, No. 6, Article ID 1750081, 24 p. (2018; Zbl 1398.53038)]. Another consequence is that, in order to prove the conjecture that (*) holds for all step two Carnot groups, it would suffice to show that it holds for all \emph{free} step two Carnot groups. \item Central sums: as studied in [\textit{H. Q. Li}, ``The Carnot-Carathéodory distance on 2-step groups'', Preprint, \url{arXiv:2112.07822}], given two groups \(\mathbb{G}, \mathbb{G}'\) having the same dimension \(m\) for their second layers, their central sum \(\mathbb{G} \mathbin{\#} \mathbb{G}'\) is the quotient of the direct product \(\mathbb{G} \times \mathbb{G}'\) by the subgroup \(\{ ((0,u),(0,v)) : u+v=0\}\). Then it follows from the previous two facts that if \(\mathbb{G}, \mathbb{G}'\) satisfy (*) with constants \(C, C'\), then so does \(\mathbb{G} \mathbin{\#} \mathbb{G}'\) with constant \(\max(C,C')\). \item Riemannian extensions: the sub-Riemannian structure on \(\mathbb{G}\) can be extended to a left-invariant Riemannian structure, and it is shown that doing so does not increase the constant in (*). As a corollary, since curvature considerations show that the Riemannian structure cannot satisfy (*) with \(C=1\), it follows that the best constant in (*) for any step two Carnot group is necessarily greater than \(1\). \end{itemize} As related work, the author mentions [\textit{M. Gordina} and \textit{L. Luo}, J. Funct. Anal. 283, No. 2, Article ID 109500, 33 p. (2022; Zbl 1487.58023)], in which the ideas of tensorization and epimorphisms were used to produce a dimension-independent logarithmic Sobolev inequality for anisotropic Heisenberg groups, as well as for an infinite-dimensional Heisenberg group.