Sharp comparison and maximum principles via horizontal normal mapping in the Heisenberg group

In this paper we solve a problem raised by Gutierrez and Montanari about comparison principles for H-convex functions on subdomains of Heisenberg groups. Our approach is based on the notion of the sub-Riemannian horizontal normal mapping and uses degree theory for set-valued maps. The statement of the comparison principle combined with a Harnack inequality is applied to prove the Aleksandrov-type maximum principle, describing the correct boundary behavior of continuous H-convex functions vanishing at the boundary of horizontally bounded subdomains of Heisenberg groups. This result answers a question by Garofalo and Tournier. The sharpness of our results are illustrated by examples. (C) 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.