Infinite-Dimensional Carnot Groups and Gâteaux Differentiability

Abstract

This paper contributes to the generalization of Rademacher’s differentiability result for Lipschitz functions when the domain is infinite dimensional and has nonabelian group structure. We introduce an infinite-dimensional analogue of Carnot groups that are metric groups equipped with dilations (which we call metric scalable groups) admitting a dense increasing sequence of finite-dimensional Carnot subgroups. For such groups, we show that every Lipschitz function has a point of Gâteaux differentiability. As a step in the proof, we show that a certain $$\sigma $$ -ideal of sets that are null with respect to this sequence of subgroups cannot contain open sets. We also give a geometric criterion for when such Carnot subgroups exist in metric scalable groups and provide examples of such groups. The proof of the main theorem follows the work of Aronszajn (Stud Math 57(2):147–190, 1976) and Pansu (Ann Math 129(1):1–60, 1989).