An isoperimetric inequality for the Heisenberg groups

We show that the Heisenberg groups of dimension five and higher, considered as Riemannian manifolds, satisfy a quadratic isoperimetric inequality. (This means that each loop of length L bounds a disk of area ~ L ².) This implies several important results about isoperimetric inequalities for discrete groups that act either on or on complex hyperbolic space, and provides interesting examples in geometric group theory. The proof consists of explicit construction of a disk spanning each loop in . Submitted: April 1997, Final version: November 1997