Sharp geometric rigidity of isometries on Heisenberg groups

Quasiconformal mappings in (mathbb{R}^n), other generalizations (30C65) Sobolev spaces and other spaces of ``smooth functions, embedding theorems, trace theorems (46E35) Sub-Riemannian geometry (53C17) Rigidity results (53C24)

Abstract: We prove sharp geometric rigidity estimates for isometries on Heisenberg groups. Our main result asserts that every

(1 + v a r e p s i l o n)

-quasi-isometry on a John domain of the Heisenberg group

m a t h b b H^{n}

,

n > 1

, is close to some isometry up to proximity order

s q r t v a r e p s i l o n + v a r e p s i l o n

in the uniform norm, and up to proximity order

v a r e p s i l o n

in the

L_{p}^{1}

-norm. We give examples showing the asymptotic sharpness of our results.

Review text

The authors prove a geometric rigidity estimate in the sub-Riemannian Heisenberg group \({\mathbb H}^n\), \(n>1\), in the spirit of previous results in Euclidean space by \textit{F. John} [Commun. Pure Appl. Math. 14, 391--413 (1961; Zbl 0102.17404)], \textit{Yu. G. Reshetnyak} [Stability theorems in geometry and analysis. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers (1994; Zbl 0925.53005)] or \textit{G. Friesecke} et al. [Commun. Pure Appl. Math. 55, No. 11, 1461--1506 (2002; Zbl 1021.74024)]. Their main result, stated as Theorem~1, is the following: Consider a John domain \(U\subset {\mathbb H}^n\), \(n>1\), with inner and outer radius \(\alpha\) and \(\beta\), respectively. Then, for every \(f\in I(1+\varepsilon,U)\), there is an isometry \(\theta\) satisfying \[ \int_U\exp\bigg(\bigg({\beta\over\alpha}\bigg)^{2n+3}{{N_1|D_hf(x)-D_h\theta(x)|}\over {\varepsilon}}\bigg)dx\leq 16\,|U|, \] and \[ \sup_{x\in U} d(f(x),\theta(x))\leq N_2{\beta^2\over\alpha}\,(\sqrt{\varepsilon}+\varepsilon), \] where \(N_1\) and \(N_2\) are constants only depending on \(n\), and \(D_h\) is the approximate horizontal differential. The class \(I(L,U)\), \(L\geq 1\), is introduced in Definition~3 and consists of mappings \(f\) in the Sobolev class \(W_{1,\mathrm{loc}}^1(U,{\mathbb H}^n)\) satisfying \(L^{-1}|\xi|\leq |D_hf(x)\xi|\leq L|\xi|\), where \(x\in U\) and \(\xi\) is a horizontal vector at \(x\). Dilations show that the proximity orders of Theorem~1 are asymptotically sharp. The proof follows Reshetnyak's approach. Previous results investigating the geometric rigidity problem for locally bi-Lipschitz mappings in the first Heisenberg group \({\mathbb H}^1\) were given by \textit{N. Arcozzi} and \textit{D. Morbidelli} [Comment. Math. Helv. 83, No. 1, 101--141 (2008; Zbl 1194.22008)], with non-optimal proximity orders. The first author [``Sharp geometric rigidity of isometries on the first Heisenberg group, in preparation (2012)] has recently considered the case of the first Heisenberg group with methods different from those of Arcozzi and Morbidelli and those in this paper.

Recommendations

Cites work

Cited in

(10)

This page was built for publication: Sharp geometric rigidity of isometries on Heisenberg groups

Report a bug (only for logged in users!)Click here to report a bug for this page (MaRDI item Q2377367)