BV functions and sets of finite perimeter in sub-Riemannian manifolds

Ambrosio, L.; Ghezzi, R.; Magnani, V.

Annales de l'I.H.P. Analyse non linéaire, Tome 32 (2015) no. 3, pp. 489-517.

We give a notion of BV function on an oriented manifold where a volume form and a family of lower semicontinuous quadratic forms $G_p:T_{p}M\to [0,\infty ]$ are given. When we consider sub-Riemannian manifolds, our definition coincides with the one given in the more general context of metric measure spaces which are doubling and support a Poincaré inequality. We focus on finite perimeter sets, i.e., sets whose characteristic function is BV, in sub-Riemannian manifolds. Under an assumption on the nilpotent approximation, we prove a blowup theorem, generalizing the one obtained for step-2 Carnot groups in [24].

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