A New Hypoelliptic Operator on Almost CR Manifolds

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to present the construction, out of the Kohn-Rossi complex, of a new hypoelliptic operator $Q_{L}$ on almost CR manifolds equipped with a real structure. The operator acts on all (p,q)-forms, but when restricted to (p,0)-forms and (p,n)-forms it is a sum of squares up to sign factor and lower order terms. Therefore, only a finite type condition condition is needed to have hypoellipticity on those forms. However, outside these forms $Q_{L}$ may fail to be hypoelliptic, as it is shown in the example of the Heisenberg group. We also look at the Fredholm properties of $Q_{L}$ and show that the corresponding Fredholm index is zero.