Horizontal Gradient Estimate of Positive Pseudo-Harmonic Functions on Complete Noncompact Pseudo-Hermitian Manifolds

In this paper, we will give a horizontal gradient estimate of positive solutions of $\Delta_b u = - \lambda u$ on complete noncompact pseudo-Hermitian manifolds. As a consequence, we recapture the Liouville theorem of positive pseudo-harmonic functions on Sasakian manifolds with nonnegative pseudo-Hermitian Ricci curvature.