The geometry and analysis that is discussed in this book extends to classical results for general discrete or Lie groups.The geometry and analysis that is discussed in this book extends to classical results for general discrete or Lie groups, and the methods used are analytical but have little to do with what is described these days as real analysis. Most of the results described in this book have a dual formulation.The geometry and analysis that is discussed in this book extends to classical results for general discrete or Lie groups, and the methods used are analytical but have little to do with what is described these days as real analysis. Most of the results described in this book have a dual formulation.The geometry and analysis that is discussed in this book extends to classical results for general discrete or Lie groups, and the methods used are analytical, but are not concerned with what is described these days as real analysis. Most of the results described in this book have a dual formulation: they have a discrete version related to a finitely generated discrete group and a continuous version related to a Lie group. The authors chose to center this book around Lie groups, but could easily have pushed it in several other directions as it interacts with the theory of second order partial differential operators, and probability theory, as well as with group theory.Preface; Foreword; 1. Introduction; 2. Dimensional inequalities for semigroups of operators on the Lp spaces; 3. Systems of vector fields satisfying H?rmander's condition; 4. The heat kernel on nilpotent Lie groups; 5. Local theory for sums of squares of vector fields; 6. Convolution powers on finitely generated groups; 7. Convolution powers on unimodular compactly generated groups; 8. The heat kernel on unimodular Lie groups; 9. Sobolev inequalities on non-unimodular Lie groups; 10. Geometric applications; Bibliography; Index. The book is very concise and contains a great wealth of ideas and rlƒ*