A Formula for Popp’s Volume in Sub-Riemannian Geometry
For an equiregular sub-Riemannian manifold M, Popp’s volume is a smooth volume which is canonically associated with the sub-Riemannian structure, and it is a natural generalization of the Riemannian one. In this paper we prove a general formula for Popp’s volume, written in terms of a frame adapted to the sub-Riemannian distribution. As a first application of this result, we prove an explicit formula for the canonical sub- Laplacian, namely the one associated with Popp’s volume. Finally, we discuss...