A universal heat semigroup characterisation of Sobolev and BV spaces in Carnot groups (Q6623643)

The authors establish a characterization of the Sobolev spaces \(W^{1,p}\) and the BV spaces (functions of bounded variation) in Carnot groups based on the study of the limiting behaviour of a new heat semigroup. Their initial motivation was to understand a corollary of a result by Bourgain, Brezis, and Mironescu (see [\textit{H. Brézis}, Russ. Math. Surv. 57, No. 4, 693--708 (2002; Zbl 1072.46020); translation from Usp. Mat. Nauk 57, No. 4, 59--74 (2002)]) in a way completely independently from it.