A geometric approach to on-diagonal heat kernel lower bounds on groups
[Une approche géométrique aux bornes inférieures sur la diagonale du noyau de la chaleur sur les groupes]
Annales de l'Institut Fourier, Tome 51 (2001) no. 6, pp. 1763-1827.

On introduit une nouvelle méthode pour minorer sur la diagonale les noyaux de la chaleur des groupes de Lie non-compacts et des groupes infinis de type fini. Cette méthode permet de retrouver les bornes inférieures optimales pour les groupes de Lie unimodulaires moyennables et pour certains groupes de type fini, parmi lesquels les groupes polycycliques. Elle permet aussi de donner une interprétation géométrique de ces résultats. On obtient des résultats nouveaux pour certains groupes discrets admettant une structure de produit semi-direct avec groupe quotient abélien ou nilpotent. Parmi ces groupes, on trouvera ceux des transformations affines de la droite réelle engendrés par la translation xx+1 et une homothétie xλx avec λ algébrique. On trouvera aussi certains produits en couronnes, comme les groupes d’allumeurs de réverbères à base nilpotente.

We introduce a new method for obtaining heat kernel on-diagonal lower bounds on non- compact Lie groups and on infinite discrete groups. By using this method, we are able to recover the previously known results for unimodular amenable Lie groups as well as for certain classes of discrete groups including the polycyclic groups, and to give them a geometric interpretation. We also obtain new results for some discrete groups which admit the structure of a semi-direct product or of a wreath product. These include the two- generators groups of affine transformations of the real line xx+1,xλx with λ algebraic, as well as lamplighter groups with nilpotent base.

DOI : 10.5802/aif.1874
Classification : 58J35, 60G50, 22E30, 20E22
Keywords: heat kernels on manifolds, random walks on graphs, Følner sets, first eigenvalue for the Dirichlet problem, Lie groups, finitely generated groups
Mot clés : noyaux de la chaleur sur les varietés, marches aléatoires sur les graphes, ensembles de Følner, première valeur propre pour le problème de dirichlet, groupes de Lie, groupes finiment engendrés
Coulhon, Thierry 1 ; Grigor'yan, Alexander 2 ; Pittet, Christophe 3

1 Université de Cergy-Pontoise, Département de Mathématiques, 2 avenue Adolphe Chauvin, 95032 Cergy Cedex (France)
2 Imperial College, London DW7 2BZ (Grande-Bretagne)
3 Université Paul Sabatier, Laboratoire Émile Picard, 118 route de Narbonne, 31062 Toulouse Cedex (France)
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Coulhon, Thierry; Grigor'yan, Alexander; Pittet, Christophe. A geometric approach to on-diagonal heat kernel lower bounds on groups. Annales de l'Institut Fourier, Tome 51 (2001) no. 6, pp. 1763-1827. doi : 10.5802/aif.1874. http://www.numdam.org/articles/10.5802/aif.1874/

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