Small time expansion for a strictly hypoelliptic kernel

We consider the kernel of a hypoelliptic diffusion beyond the case of sub-ellipticity or polynomial coefficients. We get a full asymptotic expansion for small times, based on a Duhamel-type comparison with an approximate polynomial kernel. As in the sub-elliptic case, some change of scale based on the geometry of some Lie brackets yields a non-trivial limit for the kernel as time goes to zero. Remarkably, a different scale is needed to observe a non-trivial large deviation principle.