Precisely monotone sets in step-2 rank-3 Carnot algebras

Abstract

A subset of a Carnot group is said to be precisely monotone if the restriction of its characteristic function to each integral curve of every left-invariant horizontal vector field is monotone. Equivalently, a precisely monotone set is a h-convex set with h-convex complement. Such sets have been introduced and classified in the Heisenberg setting by Cheeger and Kleiner in the 2010’s. In the present paper, we study precisely monotone sets in the wider setting of step-2 Carnot groups, equivalently step-2 Carnot algebras. In addition to general properties, we prove a classification in terms of sublevel sets of h-affine functions in step-2 rank-3 Carnot algebras that can be seen as a generalization of the one obtained by Cheeger and Kleiner in the Heisenberg setting. There is however a significant difference here as it is known that, unlike the Heisenberg setting, there are sublevel sets of h-affine functions on the free step-2 rank-3 Carnot algebra that are not half-spaces.