Infinitesimal Hilbertianity of Locally CAT(κ)-Spaces

Abstract

We show that, given a metric space (Y,d)(Y,d) of curvature bounded from above in the sense of Alexandrov, and a positive Radon measure μμ on YY giving finite mass to bounded sets, the resulting metric measure space (Y,d,μ)(Y,d,μ) is infinitesimally Hilbertian, i.e. the Sobolev space W1,2(Y,d,μ)W1,2(Y,d,μ) is a Hilbert space. The result is obtained by constructing an isometric embedding of the ‘abstract and analytical’ space of derivations into the ‘concrete and geometrical’ bundle whose fibre at x∈Yx∈Y is the tangent cone at x of YY. The conclusion then follows from the fact that for every x∈Yx∈Y such a cone is a CAT(0)CAT(0) space and, as such, has a Hilbert-like structure.