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Monotone sets have been introduced about ten years ago by Cheeger and Kleiner who reduced the proof of the non biLipschitz embeddability of the Heisenberg group into $L^1$ to the classification of its monotone subsets. Later on, monotone sets played an important role in several works related to geometric measure theory issues in the Heisenberg setting. In this paper, we work in an arbitrary Carnot group and show that its monotone subsets are sets with locally finite perimeter that are local minimizers for the perimeter. Under an additional condition on the ambient Carnot group, we prove that their measure-theoretic interior and support are precisely monotone. We also prove topological and measure-theoretic properties of local minimizers for the perimeter whose interest is independent from the study of monotone sets. As a combination of our results, we get in particular a sufficient condition under which any monotone set admits measure-theoretic representatives that are precisely monotone.

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 step-2 rank-3 Carnot algebras that generalizes the classification already known in the Heisenberg setting using sublevel sets of h-affine functions. A significant novelty is that such sublevel sets can be different from half-spaces.

This paper critically assesses the adequacy and representativeness of physical domain testing for various adversarial machine learning (ML) attacks against computer vision systems involving human subjects. Many papers that deploy such attacks characterize themselves as "real world." Despite this framing, however, we found the physical or real-world testing conducted was minimal, provided few details about testing subjects and was often conducted as an afterthought or demonstration. Adversarial ML research without representative trials or testing is an ethical, scientific, and health/safety issue that can cause real harms. We introduce the problem and our methodology, and then critique the physical domain testing methodologies employed by papers in the field. We then explore various barriers to more inclusive physical testing in adversarial ML and offer recommendations to improve such testing notwithstanding these challenges., Comment: Accepted to NeurIPS 2020 Workshop on Dataset Curation and Security; Also accepted at Navigating the Broader Impacts of AI Research Workshop. All authors contributed equally. The list of authors is arranged alphabetically

In this paper we introduce the notion of horizontally affine, h-affine in short, function and give a complete description of such functions on step-2 Carnot algebras. We show that the vector space of h-affine functions on the free step-2 rank-$n$ Carnot algebra is isomorphic to the exterior algebra of $\mathbb{R}^n$. Using that every Carnot algebra can be written as a quotient of a free Carnot algebra, we shall deduce from the free case a description of h-affine functions on arbitrary step-2 Carnot algebras, together with several characterizations of those step-2 Carnot algebras where h-affine functions are affine in the usual sense of vector spaces. Our interest for h-affine functions stems from their relationship with a class of sets called precisely monotone, recently introduced in the literature, as well as from their relationship with minimal hypersurfaces., Comment: 27 pages; Title changed; Exposition improved and simplified

Several quantitative notions of rectifiability in the Heisenberg groups have emerged in the recent literature. In this paper we study the relationship between two of them, the big pieces of intrinsic Lipschitz graphs (BPiLG) condition and the bilateral weak geometric lemma (BWGL), and show that sets with BPiLG satisfy the BWGL., Comment: 15 pages

A Semmes surface in the Heisenberg group is a closed set $S$ that is upper Ahlfors-regular with codimension one and satisfies the following condition, referred to as Condition B. Every ball $B(x,r)$ with $x \in S$ and $0 < r < \operatorname{diam} S$ contains two balls with radii comparable to $r$ which are contained in different connected components of the complement of $S$. Analogous sets in Euclidean spaces were introduced by Semmes in the late $80$'s. We prove that Semmes surfaces in the Heisenberg group are lower Ahlfors-regular with codimension one and have big pieces of intrinsic Lipschitz graphs. In particular, our result applies to the boundary of chord-arc domains and of reduced isoperimetric sets., Comment: 39 pages, 4 figures

The Besicovitch covering property (BCP) is known to be one of the fundamental tools in measure theory, and more generally, a usefull property for numerous purposes in analysis and geometry. We prove both sufficient and necessary criteria for the validity of BCP in the first Heisenberg group equipped with a homogeneous distance. Beyond recovering all previously known results about the validity or non validity of BCP in this setting, we get simple descriptions of new large classes of homogeneous distances satisfying BCP. We also obtain a full characterization of rotationally invariant distances for which BCP holds in the first Heisenberg group under mild regularity assumptions about their unit sphere., Comment: 34 pages, 2 figures, to appear on J. Geom. Anal., suggestions of the referee addressed

The theory of differentiation of measures originates from works of Besicovitch in the 1940's. His pioneering works, as well as subsequent developments of the theory, rely as fundamental tools on suitable covering properties. The first aim of these notes is to recall nowadays classical results about differentiation of measures in the metric setting together with the covering properties on which they are based. We will then focus on one of these covering properties, called in the present notes the weak Besicovitch covering property, which plays a central role in the characterization of (complete separable) metric spaces where the differentiation theorem holds for every (locally finite Borel regular) measure. We review in the last part of these notes recent results about the validity or non validity of this covering property., Comment: Lecture Notes of a course given at the CIME-CIRM Course on New Trends on Analysis and Geometry in Metric Spaces, June 26-30, 2017, Levico Terme, Italy

We give a complete answer to which homogeneous groups admit homogeneous distances for which the Besicovitch Covering Property (BCP) holds. In particular, we prove that a stratified group admits homogeneous distances for which BCP holds if and only if the group has step 1 or 2. These results are obtained as consequences of a more general study of homogeneous quasi-distances on graded groups. Namely, we prove that a positively graded group admits continuous homogeneous quasi-distances satisfying BCP if and only if any two different layers of the associated positive grading of its Lie algebra commute. The validity of BCP has several consequences. Its connections with the theory of differentiation of measures is one of the main motivations of the present paper. As a consequence of our results, we get for instance that a stratified group can be equipped with some homogeneous distance so that the differentiation theorem holds for each locally finite Borel measure if and only if the group has step 1 or 2. The techniques developed in this paper allow also us to prove that sub-Riemannian distances on stratified groups of step 2 or higher never satisfy BCP. Using blow-up techniques this is shown to imply that on a sub-Riemannian manifold the differentiation theorem does not hold for some locally finite Borel measure., Comment: 57 pages

We prove that the Besicovitch Covering Property (BCP) does not hold for some classes of homogeneous quasi-distances on Carnot groups of step 3 and higher. As a special case we get that, in Carnot groups of step 3 and higher, BCP is not satisfied for those homogeneous distances whose unit ball centered at the origin coincides with a Euclidean ball centered at the origin. This result comes in constrast with the case of the Heisenberg groups where such distances satisfy BCP.

Our main result is a positive answer to the question whether one can find homogeneous distances on the Heisenberg groups that have the Besicovitch Covering Property (BCP). This property is well known to be one of the fundamental tools of measure theory, with strong connections with the theory of differentiation of measures. We prove that BCP is satisfied by the homogeneous distances whose unit ball centered at the origin coincides with an Euclidean ball. Such homogeneous distances do exist on any Carnot group by a result of Hebisch and Sikora. In the Heisenberg groups, they are related to the Cygan-Koranyi (also called Koranyi) distance. They were considered in particular by Lee and Naor to provide a counterexample to the Goemans-Linial conjecture in theoretical computer science. To put our result in perspective, we also prove two geometric criteria that imply the non-validity of BCP, showing that in some sense our example is sharp. Our first criterion applies in particular to commonly used homogeneous distances on the Heisenberg groups, such as the Cygan-Koranyi and Carnot-Caratheodory distances that are already known not to satisfy BCP. To put a different perspective on these results and for sake of completeness, we also give a proof of the fact, noticed by D. Preiss, that in a general metric space, one can always construct a bi-Lipschitz equivalent distance that does not satisfy BCP.

In the sub-Riemannian Heisenberg group equipped with its Carnot-Caratheodory metric and with a Haar measure, we consider isodiametric sets, i.e. sets maximizing the measure among all sets with a given diameter. In particular, given an isodiametric set, and up to negligible sets, we prove that its boundary is given by the graphs of two locally Lipschitz functions. Moreover, in the restricted class of rotationally invariant sets, we give a quite complete characterization of any compact (rotationally invariant) isodiametric set. More specifically, its Steiner symmetrization with respect to the Cn-plane is shown to coincide with the Euclidean convex hull of a CC-ball. At the same time, we also prove quite unexpected non-uniqueness results., Comment: 21 pages

The classical isodiametric inequality in the Euclidean space says that balls maximize the volume among all sets with a given diameter. We consider in this paper the case of Carnot groups. We prove that for any Carnot group equipped with a Haar measure one can find a homogeneous distance for which this fails to hold. We also consider Carnot-Caratheodory distances and prove that this also fails for these distances as soon as there are length minimizing curves that stop to be minimizing in finite time. Next we study some connections with the comparison between Hausdorff and spherical Hausdorff measures, rectifiability and the generalized 1/2-Besicovitch conjecture giving in particular some cases where this conjecture fails., Comment: 14 pages

We prove the existence of solutions to Monge transport problem between two compactly supported Borel probability measures in the Heisenberg group equipped with its Carnot-Caratheodory distance assuming that the initial measure is absolutely continuous with respect to the Haar measure of the group.

We prove non-extendability results for Lipschitz maps with target space being jet spaces equipped with a left-invariant Riemannian distance, as well as jet spaces equipped with a left-invariant sub-Riemannian Carnot-Caratheodory distance. The jet spaces give a model for a certain class of Carnot groups, including in particular all Heisenberg groups., Comment: 11 pages