Spectral multipliers on a class of \(NA\) groups with rank two (Q852602)

Let \(G\) be a Lie group, and let \(X_j, j = 1, \dots, d\), be left-invariant vector fields on \(G\) which generate the Lie algebra of \(G\). The left-invariant sub-Laplacian \(\Delta = - \sum_{j = 1}^d X_j^2\) is a formally self-adjoint and non-negative operator on the space \(L^2(G)\) relative to the right-invariant Haar measure on \(G\). From the spectral theorem, every bounded Borel function \(m\) on \([0, \infty )\) determines a bounded operator \(m(\Delta)\) on \(L^2(G)\) via the formula \(m(\Delta ) = \int_0^{\infty} m(\lambda ) dE_{\lambda}\), where \(\Delta = \int_0^{\infty} \lambda dE_{\lambda}\) is the spectral resolution of \(\Delta\). A natural question to ask is under what conditions on the function \(m\) can \(m(\Delta)\) be extended to a bounded operator on \(L^p(G)\) for some \(p \neq 2\)? In the paper under review the author studies this question for a particular class of Lie groups, which we will now describe. Let \(H\) be a stratified Lie group, so the Lie algebra of \(H\) has a vector space decomposition \(\bigoplus_{j=1}^J V_j\) such that \[ [V_1, V_j ] = V_{j+1}, j = 1, \dots, J-1. \] On the Lie algebra of \(H\) a family of algebra automorphisms \(\{ \sigma_t \}_{t \in {\mathbb R}}\) is defined by \(\sigma_t ( X_j) = e^{jt}X_j\), where \(X_j \in V_j\). Let \(\text{exp}_H\) denote the exponential map on the Lie algebra of \(H\). The maps \(\text{exp}_H \circ \sigma_t \circ \text{exp}_H^{-1}\) are group automorphisms of \(H\), called dilations on \(H\). Endowed with these dilations, which are also denoted by \(\sigma_t, H\) is said to be a homogeneous group with homogeneous dimension \(Q = \sum_{j=1}^J j \text{dim}(V_j)\). Fix a positive integer \(n\) and an element \(\alpha\) from \({\mathbb R}^n\). Let \(G\) be the semidirect product \(G = G_{\alpha} = (H \times {\mathbb R}) \wr {\mathbb R}^n\), for which the group law expressed in coordinates \((h, a, t) \in H \times {\mathbb R} \times {\mathbb R}^n\), is \((h, a, t) \cdot (h', a', t') = (h \star \sigma_{\bar{t}}(h'), a + e^{\alpha \cdot t}a', t + t')\), where \(h \star h'\) denotes the group product in \(H, t \cdot t'\) denotes the Euclidean inner product in \({\mathbb R}^n\), and \(\bar{t}\) denotes the real number \(t_1 + \cdots + t_n\) associated with \(t = ( t_1, \dots, t_n) \in {\mathbb R}^n\). The Lie group \(G\) is an \(NA\) group and has exponential volume growth for any choice of \(\alpha\) from \({\mathbb R}^n\). Depending on \(\alpha\), the linear forms on \({\mathbb R}^n, \, t \mapsto \bar{t}\) and \( t \mapsto \alpha \cdot t\), called the roots of \(G\), are either linearly independent or proportional. If these roots are linearly independent then \(G\) is said to have rank two and if the roots are not linearly independent then \(G\) is said to have rank one. The group \(G\) is also endowed with the right-invariant Haar measure \(dg = dh da dt\), where \(dh\) is a bi-invariant Haar measure on \(H\), and \(da\) and \(dt\) are the Lebesgue measures on \({\mathbb R}\) and \({\mathbb R}^n\), respectively. Let \(\{ e_1, \dots, e_m\}\) be a basis of the vector space \(V_1\), and let \(\chi = \{ X_{-n}, \dots, X_m \}\) be the set of left-invariant vector fields on \(G\) defined by: \[ X_{-j} = \partial_{t_j}, j = 1, \dots, n, \] \[ X_0 = e^{\alpha \cdot t} \partial_a, \] \[ X_j \phi(g) = \partial_s \phi(g \cdot \text{exp}(se_j)) \mid_{s=0},\quad g \in G, \phi \in C^1(G), j=1, \dots, m, \] where exp denotes the exponential map on the Lie algebra of \(G\). Now \(\chi\) is a Hörmander system on \(G\) and the left-invariant sub-Laplacian associated to \(\chi, \Delta = - \sum_{j = -n}^{m} X_j^2\), is an operator on \(L^2(G)\). The main theorem proven in this paper is: Let \(G\) and \(\Delta\) be as above. Suppose that \(m\) is a continuous function with compact support in \((0, \infty)\) which belongs to the Sobolev space \(H^{Q + n + 7/2 + \epsilon}(0, \infty)\) for some \(\epsilon > 0\). Then the operator \(m(\Delta)\) extends to a bounded operator on \(L^p(G)\) for all \(p \geq 1\). In order to prove this result the author derives an \(L^1\) estimate on the heat kernel associated to \(\Delta\). Most of this paper is devoted to deriving this estimate. The author of this paper proves a similar result in [Colloq. Math. 101, No. 1, 51--74 (2004; Zbl 1056.22003)] for the case \(G = H \times {\mathbb R} \times {\mathbb R}\). In that paper the hypothesis on the continuous function \(m\) with compact support in \((0, \infty)\) was that it be an element of the Sobolev space \(H^{Q + 5 + \epsilon} (0, \infty)\) for some \(\epsilon > 0\). Setting \(n = 1\) in the main result of the paper under review we see that this condition on \(m\) is improved to it being an element of \(H^{Q + 9/2 + \epsilon} (0, \infty)\)