Riesz transform and vertical oscillation in the Heisenberg group

Abstract

We study the $L^{2}$-boundedness of the $3$-dimensional (Heisenberg) Riesz transform on intrinsic Lipschitz graphs in the first Heisenberg group $\mathbb{H}$. Inspired by the notion of vertical perimeter, recently defined and studied by Lafforgue, Naor, and Young, we first introduce new scale and translation invariant coefficients $\operatorname{osc}_{\Omega}(B(q,r))$. These coefficients quantify the vertical oscillation of a domain $\Omega \subset \mathbb{H}$ around a point $q \in \partial \Omega$, at scale $r > 0$. We then proceed to show that if $\Omega$ is a domain bounded by an intrinsic Lipschitz graph $\Gamma$, and $$\int_{0}^{\infty} \operatorname{osc}_{\Omega}(B(q,r)) \, \frac{dr}{r} \leq C < \infty, \qquad q \in \Gamma,$$ then the Riesz transform is $L^{2}$-bounded on $\Gamma$. As an application, we deduce the boundedness of the Riesz transform whenever the intrinsic Lipschitz parametrisation of $\Gamma$ is an $\epsilon$ better than $\tfrac{1}{2}$-H\"older continuous in the vertical direction. We also study the connections between the vertical oscillation coefficients, the vertical perimeter, and the natural Heisenberg analogues of the $\beta$-numbers of Jones, David, and Semmes. Notably, we show that the $L^{p}$-vertical perimeter of an intrinsic Lipschitz domain $\Omega$ is controlled from above by the $p^{th}$ powers of the $L^{1}$-based $\beta$-numbers of $\partial \Omega$.