On rectifiable measures in Carnot groups: Marstrand-Mattila rectifiability criterion

Abstract

In this paper we continue the study of the notion of $\mathscr{P}$-rectifiability in Carnot groups. We say that a Radon measure is $\mathscr{P}_h$-rectifiable, for $h\in\mathbb N$, if it has positive $h$-lower density and finite $h$-upper density almost everywhere, and, at almost every point, it admits a unique tangent measure up to multiples. In this paper we prove a Marstrand--Mattila rectifiability criterion in arbitrary Carnot groups for $\mathscr{P}$-rectifiable measures with tangent planes that admit a normal complementary subgroup. Namely, in this co-normal case, even if a priori the tangent planes at a point might not be the same at different scales, a posteriori the measure has a unique tangent almost everywhere. Since every horizontal subgroup of a Carnot group has a normal complement, our criterion applies in the particular case in which the tangents are one-dimensional horizontal subgroups. Hence, as an immediate consequence of our Marstrand--Mattila rectifiability criterion and a result of Chousionis--Magnani--Tyson, we obtain the one-dimensional Preiss's theorem in the first Heisenberg group $\mathbb H^1$. More precisely, we show that a Radon measure $\phi$ on $\mathbb H^1$ with positive and finite one-density with respect to the Koranyi distance is absolutely continuous with respect to the one-dimensional Hausdorff measure $\mathcal{H}^1$, and it is supported on a one-rectifiable set in the sense of Federer, i.e., it is supported on the countable union of the images of Lipschitz maps from $A\subseteq \mathbb R$ to $\mathbb H^1$.