Frequency functions on the Heisenberg group and the uncertainty principle and unique continuation (Q909040)

A recent result of Bahouri shows that continuation from an open set fails in general for solutions of \({\mathcal L}u=Vu\) where \(V\in C^{\infty}\) and \({\mathcal L}=\sum^{N-1}_{j=1}X^ 2_ j\) is a (nonelliptic) operator in \({\mathbb{R}}^ N\) satisfying Hörmander's condition for hypoellipticity. In this paper we study the model case when \({\mathcal L}\) is the subelliptic Laplacian on the Heisenberg group and V is a zero order term which is allowed to be unbounded. We provide a sufficient condition, involving a first order differential inequality, for nontrivial solutions of \({\mathcal L}u=Vu\) to have a finite order of vanishing at one point.