Abstract

We discover following analytic / geometric properties on Riemannian foliations with bundle-like metric and totally geodesic leaves, or shortly, totally geodesic foliations. Under a certain curvature condition, we obtain (1) Sobolev-isoperimetric inequalities, global Poincar\'e inqualities, and a lower bound for Cheeger's isoperimetric constant, (2) Poincar\'e inequalities on balls and uniqueness of positive(or $L^p,p\geq 1$) solutions for the subelliptic heat equation, (3) A lower bound for the first non-zero eigenvalue of sub-Laplacians (Lichnerowicz theorem), and Obata's sphere theorem. In this context, the curvature condition is a sub-Riemannian analogue of lower bounds for Ricci curvature tensor. Earlier, it is given by Baudoin-Garofalo's curvature dimension inequality, or Baudoin's Weitzenb"ock formulas for one forms. Our framework includes CR Sasakian manifolds with Tanaka-Webster (or pseudo-Hermitian) Ricci tensor bounds, K-contact manifolds, and Carnot group of step 2.

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Mathematics

Committee Chair

Fabrice Baudoin

Date of Award

Spring 2015

First Advisor

Fabrice Baudoin

Committee Member 1

Rodrigo Bañuelos

Committee Member 2

Laszlo Lempert

Committee Member 3

Sai Kee Yeung

Included in

Mathematics Commons

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