Hypercontractivity for Markov Semigroups

Abstract: We investigate in a systematic way hypercontractivity property in Orlicz spaces for Markov semi-groups related to homogeneous and non homogeneous diffusions in $\mathbb{R}^{n}$. We provide an explicit construction of a family of Orlicz functions for which we prove that the associated hypercontractivity property is equivalent to a suitable functional inequality.