Log-Sobolev inequalities: different roles of Ric and Hess (Q838010)

From the author's abstract: Let \(P_t\) be the diffusion semigroup generated by \(L:=\Delta +\nabla\Delta\) on a complete connected Riemannian manifold with \(\mathrm{Ric}\geq -(\sigma^2\rho_0^2+c)\) for some constants \(\sigma, c>0\) and \(\rho_0\) the Riemannian distance to a fixed point. It is shown that \(P_t\) is hypercontractive, or the log--Sobolev inequality holds for the associated Dirichlet form, provided \(-\mathrm{Hess}_V\geq \delta\) holds outside of a compact set for some constant \(\delta>(1+\sqrt 2)\sigma\sqrt{d-1}\). This indicates that \(\mathrm{Ric}\) and \(-\mathrm{Hess}_V\) play quite different roles for the log--Sobolev inequality to hold.