Calculus of Variations and Geometric Measure Theory

F. P. Maiale

A note on harmonic polynomials on Heisenberg and Carnot groups

created by maiale on 20 Feb 2026

[BibTeX]

preprint

Inserted: 20 feb 2026

Year: 2026

ArXiv: 2602.02200 PDF

Abstract:

In this paper, we consider homogeneous $Δ_H$-harmonic polynomials on the first Heisenberg group $\mathbb H$ and their traces on the unit sphere $S_ρ$ associated with the Korányi--Folland homogeneous norm $ρ$. We prove that $L^2(S_ρ,σ)$ decomposes as the orthogonal Hilbert direct sum of finite-dimensional spaces $H_m(S_ρ)$ of spherical harmonics of degree $m$, in direct analogy with the classical Euclidean spherical harmonic decomposition. We also show that, for the polynomial gauge $η_+^2(z,t)=
z
^2+4t$, every homogeneous polynomial on $\mathbb H$ admits a unique decomposition $$ Pm(\mathbb H) = Hm(\mathbb H)\oplus η+2 P{m-2}(\mathbb H). $$ Finally, we extend the spherical $L^2$-decomposition to general Carnot groups $G$ equipped with a canonical homogeneous norm $N$ associated with a fundamental solution of a fixed sub-Laplacian $Δ_G$. The traces on $S_N$ of homogeneous $Δ_G$-harmonic polynomials of degree $m$ form pairwise orthogonal eigenspaces of the spherical operator on $S_N$, and their span is dense in $L^2(S_N,σ_N)$.