Cartan connections and path structures with large automorphisms groups
Elisha Falbel, Martin Mion-Mouton, Jose Miguel Veloso
备注:
International Journal of Mathematics, 2021. In this (unpublished) improved version, we withdraw the hypothesis of a dense orbit of the automorphism group in the main Theorem 1.1 when the structure is class C^3
We classify compact manifolds of dimension three equipped with a path structure and a fixed contact form (which we refer to as a strict path structure) under the hypothesis that their automorphism group is non-compact. We use a Cartan connection associated to the structure and show that its curvature is constant.
We prove a theorem relating the automorphism group of a Cartan geometry to the group on which the geometry is modeled: a component of the adjoint representation of the first embeds in the adjoint representation of the second. Consequences of the theorem include general bounds on the rank and nilpotence degree of an automorphism group; a result asserting local homogeneity and completeness of parabolic geometries admitting a maximal-rank group of automorphisms; and a local freeness theorem for actions additionally preserving a continuous volume form.
The basic automorphism group ${A}_B(M,F)$ of a Cartan foliation $(M, F)$ is the quotient group of the automorphism group of $(M, F)$ by the normal subgroup, which preserves every leaf invariant. For Cartan foliations covered by fibrations, we find sufficient conditions for the existence of a structure of a finite-dimensional Lie group in their basic automorphism groups. Estimates of the dimension of these groups are obtained. For some class of Cartan foliations with integrable an Ehresmann connection, a method for finding of basic automorphism groups is specified.
We prove a theorem that gives a sufficient condition for the full basic automorphism group of a complete Cartan foliation to admit a unique (finite-dimensional) Lie group structure in the category of Cartan foliations. Emphasize that the transverse Cartan geometry may not be effective. Some estimates of the dimension of this group depending on the transverse geometry are found. Further, we investigate Cartan foliations covered by fibrations. When the global holonomy group of that foliation is discrete, we obtain the explicit new formula for determining its basic automorphism Lie group. Example…
We prove analogues for Cartan geometries of Gromov's major theorems on automorphisms of rigid geometric structures. The starting point is a Frobenius theorem, which says that infinitesimal automorphisms of sufficiently high order integrate to local automorphisms. Consequences include a stratification theorem describing the configuration of orbits for local Killing fields in a compact real-analytic Cartan geometry, and an open-dense theorem in the smooth case, which says that if there is a dense orbit, then there is an open, dense, locally homogeneus subset. Combining the Frobenius theorem with…
This article investigates a few questions about orbits of local automorphisms in manifolds endowed with rigid geometric structures. We give sufficient conditions for local homogeneity in a broad class of such structures, namely Cartan geometries, extending a classical result of Singer about locally homogeneous Riemannian manifolds. We also revisit a strong result of Gromov which describes the structure of the orbits of local automorphisms of manifolds endowed with $A$-rigid structures, and give a statement of this result in the setting of Cartan geometries.
We define what we call morphisms of Cartan connections. We generalize the main theorems on Cartan connections to theorems on morphisms. Many of the known constructions involving Cartan connections turn out to be examples of morphisms. We prove some basic results concerning completeness of Cartan connections. We provide a new method to prove completeness of Cartan connections using families of morphisms.
To certain types of generic distributions (subbundles in a tangent bundle) one can associate canonical Cartan connections. Many of these constructions fall into the class of parabolic geometries. The aim of this article is to show how strong restrictions on the possibles sizes of automorphism groups of such distributions can be deduced from the existence of canonical Cartan connections. This needs no information on how the Cartan connections are actually constructed and only very basic information on their properties. In particular, we discuss the examples of generic distributions of rank two …
We provide an intrinsic notion of curved cosets for arbitrary Cartan geometries, simplifying the existing construction of curved orbits for a given holonomy reduction. To do this, we define an intrinsic holonomy group, which is shown to coincide precisely with the standard definition of the holonomy group for Cartan geometries in terms of an associated principal connection. These curved cosets retain many characteristics of their homogeneous counterparts, and they behave well under the action of automorphisms. We conclude the paper by using the machinery developed to generalize the de Rham dec…
We construct infinite families of regular normal Cartan geometries with nonvanishing curvature and essential automorphisms on closed manifolds for many higher rank parabolic model geometries. To do this, we use particular elements of the kernel of the Kostant Laplacian to construct homogeneous Cartan geometries of the desired type, giving a global realization of an elegant local construction due to Kruglikov and The, and then modify these homogeneous geometries to make their base manifolds compact. As a demonstration, we apply the construction to quaternionic contact structrures of mixed signa…
Introducing the deformation theory of holomorphic Cartan geometries, we compute infinitesimal automorphisms and infinitesimal deformations. We also prove the existence of a semi-universal deformation of a holomorphic Cartan geometry.
We describe invariant principal and Cartan connections on homogeneous principal bundles and show how to calculate the curvature and the holonomy; in the case of an invariant Cartan connection we give a formula for the infinitesimal automorphisms. The main result of this paper is that the above calculations are purely algorithmic. As an example of an homogeneous parabolic geometry we treat a conformal structure on the product of two spheres.
We study local automorphisms of holomorphic Cartan geometries. This leads to classification results for compact complex manifolds admitting Cartan geometries. We prove that a compact Calabi-Yau manifold bearing a holomorphic Cartan geometry of algebraic type admits a finite unramified cover which is a complex torus.
We give a differential geometric description of the Cartan (or tractor) bundle and its canonical connection in CR geometry, thus offering a direct, alternative, definition to the usual abstract approach.
This paper is a study of the relationship between two constructions associated with Cartan geometries, both of which involve Lie algebroids: the Cartan algebroid, due to [Blaom A.D., Trans. Amer. Math. Soc. 358 (2006), 3651-3671], and tractor calculus [Cap A., Gover A.R., Trans. Amer. Math. Soc. 354 (2001), 1511-1548].
The Klein-Grifone approach to global Finsler geometry is adopted. The nullity distributions of the three curvature tensors of Cartan connection are investigated. Nullity distributions concerning certain relevant special Finsler spaces are considered. Concrete examples are given whenever the situation needs.
We first discuss the problems in the theory of ordinary differential equations that gave rise to the concept of a flag system and illustrate these with the Cartan criterion for Monge equations (1st order) as well as the Cartan statement concerning the local equivalence of Monge-Ampère type equations (2nd order). Next, we describe a prolongation functor operating on the infinitesimal symmetries (automorphisms) of the Darboux flag and extending these, isomorphically, to all the symmetries of any other flag. Hence, flag systems cannot be distinguished by their symmetry algebras and the local clas…
Adopting the pullback approach to global Finsler geometry, the aim of the present paper is to provide new intrinsic (coordinate-free) proofs of intrinsic versions of the existence and uniqueness theorems for the Cartan and Berwald connections on a Finsler manifold. To accomplish this, the notions of semispray and nonlinear connection associated with a given regular connection, in the pullback bundle, is introduced and investigated. Moreover, it is shown that for the Cartan and Berwald connections, the associated semispray coincides with the canonical spray and the associated nonlinear connecti…
The aim of this article is to proof a necessary and sufficient condition for the existence of a Cartan connection on a principal bundle. After collecting the essentially well known facts to fix the terminology, soldering forms and geometrizable principal bundles are defined to finally prove the existence criterion.
In this paper, we analyse the question of existence of a natural and projectively equivariant symbol calculus, using the theory of projective Cartan connections. We establish a close relationship between the existence of such a natural symbol calculus and the existence of an \sl(m+1,\R)-equivariant calculus over \R^{m} in the sense of [15,1]. Moreover we show that the formulae that hold in the non-critical situations over \R^{m} for the \sl(m+1,\R)-equivariant calculus can be directly generalized to an arbitrary manifold by simply replacing the partial derivatives by invariant differentiations…
In the present paper, we have studied the Matsumoto change $\overline{L}(x,y)= \frac{L^{2}(x,y)}{L(x,y) - β(x,y)} $ with an \textsl{h-}vector $b_{i}(x,y)$. We have derived some fundamental tensors for this transformation. We have also obtained the necessary and sufficient condition for which the Cartan connection coefficients for both the spaces $F^{n}=(M^n,L)$ and $\overline{F}^{\,n}=(M^{n},\overline{L})$ are same.
A multiplicatively closed, horizontal $n$-plane field $D$ on a Lie groupoid $G$ over $M$ generalizes to intransitive geometry the classical notion of a Cartan connection. The infinitesimalization of the connection $D$ is a Cartan connection $\nabla $ on the Lie algebroid of $G$, a notion already studied elsewhere by the author. It is shown that $\nabla $ may be regarded as infinitesimal parallel translation in the groupoid $G$ along $D$. From this follows a proof that $D$ defines a pseudoaction generating a pseudogroup of transformations on $M$ precisely when the curvature of $\nabla $ vanishe…
Around 1923, Elie Cartan introduced affine connections on manifolds and definedthe main related concepts: torsion, curvature, holonomy groups. He discussed applications of these concepts in Classical and Relativistic Mechanics; in particular he explained how parallel transport with respect to a connection can be related to the principle of inertia in Galilean Mechanics and, more generally, can be used to model the motion of a particle in a gravitational field. In subsequent papers, Elie Cartan extended these concepts for other types of connections on a manifold: Euclidean, Galilean and Minkows…
We describe a complete system of invariants for 4-dimensional CR manifolds of CR dimension 1 and codimension 2 with Engel CR distribution by constructing an explicit canonical Cartan connection. We also investigate the relation between the Cartan connection and the normal form of the defining equation of an embedded Engel CR manifold.
The existence of a natural and projectively equivariant quantization in the sense of Lecomte [20] was proved recently by M. Bordemann [4], using the framework of Thomas-Whitehead connections. We give a new proof of existence using the notion of Cartan projective connections and we obtain an explicit formula in terms of these connections. Our method yields the existence of a projectively equivariant quantization if and only if an \sl(m+1,\R)-equivariant quantization exists in the flat situation in the sense of [18], thus solving one of the problems left open by M. Bordemann.
In the present paper, the $(HM',S,T)$-Cartan connections on pseudo-Finsler manifolds, introduced by A. Bejancu and H.R. Farran, are obtained by the natural almost complex structure arising from the nonlinear connection $HM'$. We prove that the natural almost complex linear connection associated to a $(HM',S,T)$-Cartan connection is a metric linear connection with respect to the Sasaki metric $G$. Finally we give some conditions for $(M', J, G)$ to be a Kähler manifold.
A completely nonintegrable $2$-dimensional distribution on a $4$-manifold is called an Engel structure. A $4$-manifold with an Engel structure is called an Engel manifold. The developing map for an Engel manifold is very important tool to determine the Engel structure. Montgomery used it to prove that an Engel automorphism is determined by the values on a global slice. Moreover, Montgomery constructed Engel manifolds whose automorphism group is small. In this paper, we prove that the automorphism group of an Engel manifold is embedded into the automorphism group of the Cartan prolongation of a…
In the first part of this series of papers we developed the invariant differentiation with respect to a Cartan connection, we described this procedure in the terms of the underlying principal connections, and we discussed applications of this theory to the construction of natural operators. In this part we will extend the results of \cite{Ochiai, 70} on the existence and the uniqueness of the so called normal Cartan connections on manifolds with almost Hermitian symmetric structures to first order structures which do not admit a torsion free linear connection. Moreover, for each of these struc…
We show that the isotropy action of a homogeneous space $G/K$, where $G$ and $K$ are compact, connected Lie groups and $K$ is defined by an automorphism on $G$, is equivariantly formal and that $(G, K)$ is a Cartan pair.
We reinterpret the Schrödinger equation as a continuity equation in the space with the Cartan connection given by scaling Lie-Bäcklund group on a specific jet space. In this space, the wave function and their gradient coordinates are treated as independent coordinates. This approach gives a full Cartan connection form a divergence-free condition. Once constructed, the connection makes it possible to investigate the geometry of the space on which this Schrödinger-Cartan connection is constructed. This is the idea that generalizes the concepts present in de Broglie-Bohm (pilot wave) theory in a …
We study the equivalence problem for $4$-dimensional CR-manifolds of CR-dimension $1$ and codimension $2$ which are referred to as Engel CR-manifolds. We construct a canonical Cartan connection on such CR-manifolds through Cartan equivalence's method. In particular, we give the explicit expression of $4$ biholomorphic invariants, the annulation of which is a necessary and sufficient condition for an Engel manifold to be locally biholomorphic to Beloshapka's cubic in $\mathbb{C}^3$.
We discuss a method for constructing multiplicative connections on proper Lie groupoids or, more exactly, for reducing the task of constructing such connections to a number of in principle simpler tasks involving only Lie groupoids that are both proper and regular.
Let \gh = \gh_{-k}\oplus \cdots \oplus \gh_{l} (k >0, l \geq 0) be a finite dimensional real graded Lie algebra, with a Euclidian metric \langle \cdot , \cdot \rangle adapted to the gradation. The metric \langle\cdot , \cdot \rangle is called admissible if the codifferentials \partial^{*} : C^{k+1}(\gh_{-}, \gh ) \ra C^{k} (\gh_{-}, \gh) (k\geq 0) are Ad_{Q}-invariant (Lie(Q) = \gh_{0}\oplus \gh_{+}). We find necessary and sufficient conditions for a Euclidian metric, adapted to the gradation, to be admissible, and we develop a theory of normal Cartan connections, when these conditions are sat…
Analogous to the characterisation of Brownian motion on a Riemannian manifold as the development of Brownian motion on a Euclidean space, we construct sub-Riemannian diffusions on equinilpotentisable sub-Riemannian manifolds by developing a canonical stochastic process arising as the lift of Brownian motion to an associated model space. The notion of stochastic development we introduce for equinilpotentisable sub-Riemannian manifolds uses Cartan connections, which take the place of the Levi-Civita connection in Riemannian geometry. We first derive a general expression for the generator of the …
We give an explicit description, in terms of bracket, anchor, and pairing, of the standard cochain complex associated to a Courant algebroid. In this formulation, the differential satisfies a formula that is formally identical to the Cartan formula for the de Rham differential. This perspective allows us to develop the theory of Courant algebroid connections in a way that mirrors the classical theory of connections. Using a special class of connections, we construct secondary characteristic classes associated to any Courant algebroid.
With the intent of laying the groundwork for a program that aims at explicitly describing the space of Cartan (i.e. multiplicative) connections on a general proper Lie groupoid, we begin to investigate the space of such connections in the regular case. We point out that there is a close relationship between Cartan connections on a proper regular groupoid and representations of the groupoid on its own longitudinal bundle (i.e. on the vector distribution tangent to its orbits). This observation enables us to reduce the original problem to a simpler one. We carry out a prospective study of the la…
The paper is focused on the existence problem of attractors for foliations. Since the existence of an attractor is a transversal property of the foliation, it is natural to consider foliations admitting transversal geometric structures. As transversal structures are chosen Cartan geometries due to their universality. The existence problem of an attractor on a complete Cartan foliation is reduced to a similar problem for the action of its structure Lie group on a certain smooth manifold. In the case of a complete Cartan foliation with a structure subordinated to a transformation group, the prob…
We show that the extended principal bundle of a Cartan geometry of type $(A(m,\mathbb{R}),GL(m,\mathbb{R}))$, endowed with its extended connection $\hatω$, is isomorphic to the principal $A(m,\mathbb{R})$-bundle of affine frames endowed with the affine connection as defined in classical Kobayashi-Nomizu volume I. Then we classify the local holonomy groups of the Cartan geometry canonically associated to a Riemannian manifold. It follows that if the holonomy group of the Cartan geometry canonically associated to a Riemannian manifold is compact then the Riemannian manifold is locally a product …
The classical Cartan's structural equations show in a compact way the relation between a connection and its curvature, and reveals their geometric interpretation in terms of moving frames. In order to study the mathematical properties of singularities, we need to study the geometry of manifolds endowed on the tangent bundle with a symmetric bilinear form which is allowed to become degenerate. But if the fundamental tensor is allowed to be degenerate, there are some obstructions in constructing the geometric objects normally associated to the fundamental tensor. Also, local orthonormal frames a…
On a real analytic 5-dimensional CR-generic submanifold M^5 in C^4 of codimension 3, hence of CR dimension 1, which enjoys the generically satisfied nondegeneracy condition that Lie brackets up to length 3 of T^{1,0}M generate CTM, a canonical Cartan connection is constructed after reduction to a certain partially explicit e-structure of the concerned local biholomorphic equivalence problem. More advanced explorations of the incoming differential invariants due to the first and to the third authors already appeared in January 2014, hence the purpose is to show, while studying this specific Cla…
Starting from a real analytic surface $\mathcal{M}$ with a real analytic conformal Cartan connection A. Borówka constructed a minitwistor space of an asymptotically hyperbolic Einstein-Weyl manifold with $\mathcal{M}$ being the boundary. In this article, starting from a symmetry of conformal Cartan connection, we prove that symmetries of conformal Cartan connection on $\mathcal{M}$ can be extended to symmetries of the obtained Einstein-Weyl manifold.
The geometric content of the MacDowell-Mansouri formulation of general relativity is best understood in terms of Cartan geometry. In particular, Cartan geometry gives clear geometric meaning to the MacDowell-Mansouri trick of combining the Levi-Civita connection and coframe field, or soldering form, into a single physical field. The Cartan perspective allows us to view physical spacetime as tangentially approximated by an arbitrary homogeneous "model spacetime", including not only the flat Minkowski model, as is implicitly used in standard general relativity, but also de Sitter, anti de Sitter…
Einstein gravity in both 3 and 4 dimensions, as well as some interesting generalizations, can be written as gauge theories in which the connection is a Cartan connection for geometry modeled on a symmetric space. The relevant models in 3 dimensions include Einstein gravity in Chern-Simons form, as well as a new formulation of topologically massive gravity, with arbitrary cosmological constant, as a single constrained Chern-Simons action. In 4 dimensions the main model of interest is MacDowell-Mansouri gravity, generalized to include the Immirzi parameter in a natural way. I formulate these the…
Consider an anchored bundle $(E,ρ)$, i.e. a vector bundle $E\to M$ equipped with a bundle map $ρ\colon E \to TM$ covering the identity. M.~Kapranov showed in the context of Lie-Rinehard algebras that there exists an extension of this anchored bundle to an infinite rank universal free Lie algebroid $FR(E)\supset E$. We adapt his construction to the case of an anchored bundle equipped with an arbitrary connection, $(E,\nabla)$, and show that it gives rise to a unique connection $\tilde \nabla$ on $FR(E)$ which is compatible with its Lie algebroid structure, thus turning $(FR(E), \tilde \nabla)$ …
In his 1910 paper, Élie Cartan gave a tour-de-force solution to the (local) equivalence problem for generic rank 2 distributions on 5-manifolds, i.e. $(2,3,5)$-distributions. From a modern perspective, these structures admit equivalent descriptions as (regular, normal) parabolic geometries modelled on a quotient of $G_2$, but this is not transparent from his article: indeed, the Cartan "connection" of 1910 is not a "Cartan connection" in the modern sense. We revisit the classification of multiply-transitive $(2,3,5)$-distributions from a modern Cartan-geometric perspective, incorporating $G_2$…
On a Finsler manifold $(M,L)$, we consider the change $L\longrightarrow\bar{L}(x,y)=e^{σ(x)}L(x,y)+β(x,y)$, which we call a $β$-conformal change. This change generalizes various types of changes in Finsler geometry: conformal, $C$-conformal, $h$-conformal, Randers and generalized Randers changes. Under this change, we obtain an explicit expression relating the Cartan connection associated to $(M,L)$ and the transformed Cartan connection associated to $(M,\bar{L})$. We also express some of the fundamental geometric objects (canonical spray, nonlinear connection, torsion tensors, ...etc.) of $(M…
A filtered manifold is a smooth manifold $M$ together with a filtration of the tangent bundle by smooth subbundles which is compatible with the Lie bracket of vector fields in a certain sense. The Lie bracket of vector fields then induces a bilinear operation on the associated graded of each tangent space of $M$ making it into a nilpotent graded Lie algebra. Assuming that these symbol algebras are the same for all points, one obtains a natural frame bundle for the associated graded to the tangent bundle, and filtered G--structures are defined as reductions of structure group of this bundle. Ge…
In a recent expository article (Notices of the AMS, 58 (2011), no. 1, 20-27), Ezhov, McLaughlin and Schmalz showed how to perform in an effective way Tanaka's prolongation procedure valid generally for filtered structures of constant type when the distribution is equipped with an integrable complex structure, so as to derive the principal curvature invariants and (co)frame(s) associated to strongly pseudoconvex real hypersurfaces M3 in C2, an approach which is alternative and complementary to the `hyperspherical' connection of Elie Cartan, and to the so-called calculi of Fefferman, of Chern-Mo…
Lightlike Cartan geometries are introduced as Cartan geometries modelled on the future lightlike cone in Lorentz-Minkowski spacetime. Then, we provide an approach to the study of lightlike manifolds from this point of view. It is stated that every lightlike Cartan geometry on a manifold $N$ provides a lightlike metric $h$ with radical distribution globally spanned by a vector field $Z$. For lightlike hypersurfaces of a Lorentz manifold, we give the condition that characterizes when the pull-back of the Levi-Civita connection form of the ambient manifold is a lightlike Cartan connection on such…
We describe the induced geometry on several classes of Kodaira moduli spaces of rational curves in twistor spaces. By constructing connections and frames on the moduli spaces we build and review twistor theories pertaining to relativistic and non-relativistic geometries. Focussing on the cases of three- and five-dimensional moduli spaces we establish novel twistor theories of Newton-Cartan spacetimes. We generalise a canonical class of connections on Kodaira moduli spaces to encompass torsion and prove that in three dimensions deformations of the twistor space's holomorphic structure induce Ne…
In this paper, we identify the Bott connection on the natural foliation of the projective sphere bundle of a Finsler manifold to the Chern connection of this manifold. As a consequence, the symmetrization of the Bott connection turns out to be the Cartan connection of the Finsler manifold. Following Liu-Zhang \cite{LiuZ}, the Cartan connection can also be obtained through an adiabatic limit process. Furthermore, a Chern-Simons type form is defined and its conformal properties are discussed.