Symmetrization and Sharp Sobolev Inequalities in Metric Spaces Jan KALISˇ and Mario MILMAN Department of Mathematics Florida Atlantic University Boca Raton, Fl 33431 — USA
[email protected] [email protected] Received: January 22, 2009 Accepted: March 6, 2009 ABSTRACT We derive sharp Sobolev inequalities for Sobolev spaces on metric spaces. In particular, we obtain new sharp Sobolev embeddings and Faber-Krahn estimates for H¨ormander vector fields. Key words: Sobolev, embedding, metric, vector fields, symmetrization. 2000 Mathematics Subject Classification: Primary: 46E30, 26D10. 1. Introduction Recently, a rich theory of Sobolev spaces on metric spaces has been developed (see [6,8], and the references therein). In particular, this has led to the unification of some aspects of the classical theory of Sobolev spaces with the theory of Sobolev spaces of vector fields satisfying H¨ormander’s condition. At the root of these developments are suitable forms of Poincar´e inequalities which, in fact, can be used to provide a natural method to define the notion of a gradient in the setting of metric spaces. In the theory of H¨ormander vector fields, the relevant Poincar´e inequalities had been obtained much earlier by Jerison [9]: 1/2 1/2 1 2 1 2 |f − f | dx ≤ Cr(B) |Xf| dx , | | B | | B B B B ∞ where X =(X1,...,Xm) is a family of C H¨ormander vector fields, 1 2 2 / |Xf| = |Xif| , Rev. Mat. Complut. 22 (2009), no. 2, 499–515 499 ISSN: 1139-1138 http://dx.doi.org/10.5209/rev_REMA.2009.v22.n2.16292 J. Kaliˇs/M.