Liouville-type theorems for real sub-Laplacians

An inequality generalizing the classical Liouville and Harnack Theorems for real sub-Laplacians ℒ is proved. A representation formula for functions $u$ for which ℒu is a polynomial is also showed. As a consequence, some conditions are given ensuring that u is a polynomial whenever ℒu is a polynomial. Finally, an application of this last result is given: if ψ is a C ² map commuting with ℒ, then any of its component is a polynomial function. Received: 3 November 2000