Subelliptic Estimates for Quadratic Differential Operators

We prove global subelliptic estimates for quadratic differential operators. Quadratic differential operators are operators defined in the Weyl quantization by complex-valued quadratic symbols. In a previous joint work with M. Hitrik, we pointed out the existence of a particular linear subvector space in the phase space intrinsically associated to their Weyl symbols, called singular space, which rules spectral properties of non-elliptic quadratic operators. The purpose of the present paper is to prove that quadratic operators whose singular spaces are reduced to zero, are subelliptic with a loss of "derivatives" depending directly on particular algebraic properties of the Hamilton maps of their Weyl symbols. More generally, when singular spaces are symplectic spaces, we prove that quadratic operators are subelliptic in any direction of the symplectic orthogonal complements of their singular spaces.