Measure contraction properties of Carnot groups

TL;DR

This paper characterizes measure contraction properties of corank 1 Carnot groups, establishing conditions under which they satisfy MCP(K,N), and introduces the geodesic dimension, linking it to curvature and Hausdorff dimensions.

Contribution

It generalizes MCP results from Heisenberg groups to a broader class of Carnot groups with abnormal curves and introduces the geodesic dimension concept.

Findings

Carnot groups satisfy MCP(K,N) iff K ≤ 0 and N ≥ k+3

The geodesic dimension equals k+3 for these groups

Curvature exponent exceeds the geodesic dimension, which exceeds Hausdorff dimension

Abstract

We prove that any corank 1 Carnot group of dimension $k+1$ equipped with a left-invariant measure satisfies the $\mathrm{MCP}(K,N)$ if and only if $K \leq 0$ and $N \geq k+3$. This generalizes the well known result by Juillet for the Heisenberg group $\mathbb{H}_{k+1}$ to a larger class of structures, which admit non-trivial abnormal minimizing curves. The number $k+3$ coincides with the geodesic dimension of the Carnot group, which we define here for a general metric space. We discuss some of its properties, and its relation with the curvature exponent (the least $N$ such that the $\mathrm{MCP}(0,N)$ is satisfied). We prove that, on a metric measure space, the curvature exponent is always larger than the geodesic dimension which, in turn, is larger than the Hausdorff one. When applied to Carnot groups, our results improve a previous lower bound due to Rifford. As a byproduct, we prove that a Carnot group is ideal if and only if it is fat.