TY - JOUR T1 - A formula for Popp\'s volume in sub-Riemannian geometry JF - Analysis and Geometry in Metric Spaces, vol. 1 (2012), pages : 42-57 Y1 - 2012 A1 - Luca Rizzi A1 - Davide Barilari KW - subriemannian, volume, Popp, control AB - For an equiregular sub-Riemannian manifold M, Popp\'s volume is a smooth\r\nvolume which is canonically associated with the sub-Riemannian structure, and\r\nit is a natural generalization of the Riemannian one. In this paper we prove a\r\ngeneral formula for Popp\'s volume, written in terms of a frame adapted to the\r\nsub-Riemannian distribution. As a first application of this result, we prove an\r\nexplicit formula for the canonical sub-Laplacian, namely the one associated\r\nwith Popp\'s volume. Finally, we discuss sub-Riemannian isometries, and we prove\r\nthat they preserve Popp\'s volume. We also show that, under some hypotheses on\r\nthe action of the isometry group of M, Popp\'s volume is essentially the unique\r\nvolume with such a property. PB - SISSA UR - http://hdl.handle.net/1963/6501 N1 - 16 pages, minor revisions U1 - 6446 U2 - Mathematics U4 - 1 U5 - MAT/03 GEOMETRIA ER -