Let ${\mu }_A$ be the singular measure on the Heisenberg group ${ℍ}^n$ supported on the graph of the quadratic function $\varphi \left(y\right)=y^{t}Ay$, where $A$ is a $2n\times 2n$ real symmetric matrix. If $det(2A\pm J)\ne 0$, we prove that the operator of convolution by ${\mu }_A$ on the right is bounded from $L^{\frac{(2n+2)}{(2n+1)}}\left({ℍ}^n\right)$ to $L^{2n+2}\left({ℍ}^n\right)$. We also study the type set of the measures $\mathrm{d}{\nu }_{\gamma }(y,s)=\eta \left(y\right){\left|y\right|}^{-\gamma }\mathrm{d}{\mu }_A(y,s)$, for $0\le \gamma <2n$, where $\eta$ is a cut-off function around the origin on ${ℝ}^{2n}$. Moreover, for $\gamma =0$ we characterize the type set of ${\nu }_0$.

A measure is called $L^p$-improving if it acts by convolution as a bounded operator from $L^p$ to $L^q$ for some q > p. Positive measures which are $L^p$-improving are known to have positive Hausdorff dimension. We extend this result to complex $L^p$-improving measures and show that even their energy dimension is positive. Measures of positive energy dimension are seen to be the Lipschitz measures and are characterized in terms of their improving behaviour on a subset of $L^p$-functions.

We consider the Heisenberg group ℍⁿ = ℂⁿ × ℝ. Let ν be the Borel measure on ℍⁿ defined by $\nu \left(E\right)={\int }_{ℂⁿ}{\chi }_E(w,\phi \left(w\right))\eta \left(w\right)dw$, where $\phi \left(w\right)={\sum }_{j=1}^n{a}_j\left|w_j\right|²$, w = (w₁,...,wₙ) ∈ ℂⁿ, $a_j\in ℝ$, and η(w) = η₀(|w|²) with $\eta ₀\in C_c^{\infty }\left(ℝ\right)$. We characterize the set of pairs (p,q) such that the convolution operator with ν is $L^p\left(ℍⁿ\right)-L^q\left(ℍⁿ\right)$ bounded. We also obtain $L^p$-improving properties of measures supported on the graph of the function $\phi \left(w\right)={\left|w\right|}^{2m}$.