We present some recent results about a way of defining suitable fractional powers of the sub-Laplacian on an arbitrary Carnot group through an analytic continuation approach introduced by Landkof in Euclidean spaces. Furthermore, we present a stronger outcome in the setting of the Heisenberg group, which is the simplest non-commutative stratified group. Eventually, in this context we propose a geometrical application of our result: we compute the value of suitable momenta with respect to the heat kernel. This is joint work with Fausto Ferrari.