Compositions of pseudo-differential operators
Given a smooth family of vector fields satisfying Chow-Hörmander’s condition of step 2 and a regularity assumption, we prove that the Sobolev spaces of fractional order constructed by the standard functional analysis can actually be “computed” with a simple formula involving the sub-riemannian distance.Our approach relies on a microlocal analysis of translation operators in an anisotropic context. It also involves classical estimates of the heat-kernel associated to the sub-elliptic Laplacian.
This survey of the work of the author with several collaborators presents the way groupoids appear and can be used in index theory. We define the general tools, and apply them to the case of manifolds with corners, ending with a topological index theorem.
For a principal type pseudodifferential operator, we prove that condition implies local solvability with a loss of 3/2 derivatives. We use many elements of Dencker’s paper on the proof of the Nirenberg-Treves conjecture and we provide some improvements of the key energy estimates which allows us to cut the loss of derivatives from for any (Dencker’s most recent result) to 3/2 (the present paper). It is already known that condition doesnotimply local solvability with a loss of 1 derivative,...