Title: Contraction properties and differentiability of $p$-energy forms with applications to nonlinear potential theory on self-similar sets

Abstract: We introduce new contraction properties called the generalized $p$-contraction property for $p$-energy forms as generalizations of many well-known inequalities, such as Clarkson's inequalities, the strong subadditivity and the ``Markov property'' in the theory of nonlinear Dirichlet forms, and show that any $p$-energy form satisfying Clarkson's inequalities is Fr\'{e}chet differentiable. We also verify the generalized $p$-contraction property for $p$-energy forms constructed by Kigami [Mem. Eur. Math. Soc. 5 (2023)] and by Cao--Gu--Qiu [Adv. Math. 405 (2022), no. 108517]. As a general framework of $p$-energy forms taking into consideration the generalized $p$-contraction property, we introduce the notion of $p$-resistance form and investigate fundamental properties for $p$-harmonic functions with respect to $p$-resistance forms. In particular, some new estimates on scaling factors of $p$-energy forms are obtained by establishing H\"{o}lder regularity estimates for harmonic functions, and the $p$-walk dimensions of the generalized Sierpi\'{n}ski carpets and $D$-dimensional level-$l$ Sierpi\'{n}ski gasket are shown to be strictly greater than $p$.