Gradient estimates for heat kernels and harmonic functions

Abstract

Let $(X,d,\hat{I}¼)$ be a doubling metric measure space endowed with a Dirichlet form $\E$ deriving from a "carré du champ". Assume that $(X,d,μ,\E)$ supports a scale-invariant $L^2$-Poincaré inequality. In this article, we study the following properties of harmonic functions, heat kernels and Riesz transforms for $p\in (2,\infty ]$: (i) $(G_p)$: $L^p$-estimate for the gradient of the associated heat semigroup; (ii) $(R{H}_p)$: $L^p$-reverse Hölder inequality for the gradients of harmonic functions; (iii) $(R_p)$: $L^p$-boundedness of the Riesz transform ($p<\infty$); (iv) $(GBE)$: a generalised Bakry-Émery condition. We show that, for $p\in (2,\infty )$, (i), (ii) (iii) are equivalent, while for $p=\infty$, (i), (ii), (iv) are equivalent. Moreover, some of these equivalences still hold under weaker conditions than the $L^2$-Poincaré inequality. Our result gives a characterisation of Li-Yau's gradient estimate of heat kernels for $p=\infty$, while for $p\in (2,\infty )$ it is a substantial improvement as well as a generalisation of earlier results by Auscher-Coulhon-Duong-Hofmann [7] and Auscher-Coulhon [6]. Applications to isoperimetric inequalities and Sobolev inequalities are given. Our results apply to Riemannian and sub-Riemannian manifolds as well as to non-smooth spaces, and to degenerate elliptic/parabolic equations in these settings.

59 pages