The Bochner-Type Formula and The First Eigenvalue of the sub-Laplacian on a Contact Riemannian Manifold

Abstract: Contact Riemannian manifolds, with not necessarily integrable complex structures, are the generalization of pseudohermitian manifolds in CR geometry. The Tanaka-Webster-Tanno connection on such a manifold plays the role of Tanaka-Webster connection in the pseudohermitian case. We prove the contact Riemannian version of the pseudohermitian Bochner-type formula, and generalize the CR Lichnerowicz theorem about the sharp lower bound for the first nonzero eigenvalue of the sub-Laplacian to the contact Riemannnian case.