Interior and Exterior Differential Systems for Lie Algebroids

A theorem of Maurer-Cartan type for Lie algebroids is presented. Suppose that any vector subbundle of a Lie algebroid is called interior differential system (IDS) for that Lie algebroid. A theorem of Frobenius type is obtained. Extending the classical notion of exterior diffential system (EDS) to Lie algebroids, a theorem of Cartan type is obtained.

Atiyah and Todd classes of regular Lie algebroids

For any regular Lie algebroid A, the kernel K and the image F of its anchor map ρA, together with A itself fit into a short exact sequence, called the Atiyah sequence, of Lie algebroids. We prove that the Atiyah and Todd classes of dg manifolds arising from a regular Lie algebroid respect the Atiyah sequence, i.e.,the Atiyah and Todd classes of A restrict to the Atiyah and Todd classes of the bundle K of Lie algebras on the one hand, and project onto the Atiyah and Todd classes of the integrable distribution F■T_M on the other hand.

Nonlinear Conformal Gravitation

In 1909 the brothers E. and F. Cosserat discovered a new nonlinear group theoretical approach to elasticity (EL), with the only experimental need to measure the EL constants. In a modern framework, they used the nonlinear Spencer sequence instead of the nonlinear Janet sequence for the Lie groupoid defining the group of rigid motions of space. Following H. Weyl, our purpose is to compute for the first time the linear and nonlinear Spencer sequences for the Lie groupoid defining the conformal group of space-time in order to provide the mathematical foundations of both electromagnetism (EM) and gravitation (GR), with the only experimental need to measure the EM and GR constants. With a manifold of dimension n ≥ 3, the difficulty is to deal with the n nonlinear transformations that have been called “elations” by E. Cartan in 1922. Using the fact that dimension n = 4 has very specific properties for the computation of the Spencer cohomology, we also prove that there is no conceptual difference between the (nonlinear) Cosserat EL field or induction equations and the (linear) Maxwell EM field or induction equations. As for gravitation, the dimension n = 4 also allows to have a conformal factor defined everywhere but at the central attractive mass because the inversion law of the isotropy subgroupoid made by second order jets transforms attraction into repulsion. The mathematical foundations of both electromagnetism and gravitation are thus only depending on the structure of the conformal pseudogroup of space-time.

Groupoids,Discrete Mechanics,and Discrete Variation

After introducing some of the basic definitions and results from the theory of groupoid and Lie algebroid,we investigate the discrete Lagrangian mechanics from the viewpoint of groupoid theory and give the connection betweengroupoids variation and the methods of the first and second discrete variational principles.

Nonlinear Conformal Electromagnetism

In 1909 the brothers E. and F. Cosserat discovered a new nonlinear group theoretical approach to elasticity (EL), with the only experimental need to measure the EL constants. In a modern language, their idea has been to use the nonlinear Spencer sequence instead of the nonlinear Janet sequence for the Lie groupoid defining the group of rigid motions of space. Following H. Weyl, our purpose is to compute for the first time the nonlinear Spencer sequence for the Lie groupoid defining the conformal group of space-time in order to provide the mathematical foundations of electromagnetism (EM), with the only experimental need to measure the EM constant in vacuum. With a manifold of dimension n, the difficulty is to deal with the n nonlinear transformations that have been called “elations” by E. Cartan in 1922. Using the fact that dimension n=4 has very specific properties for the computation of the Spencer cohomology, we prove that there is thus no conceptual difference between the Cosserat EL field or induction equations and the Maxwell EM field or induction equations. As a byproduct, the well known field/matter couplings (piezzoelectricity, photoelasticity, streaming birefringence, …) can be described abstractly, with the only experimental need to measure the corresponding coupling constants. The main consequence of this paper is the need to revisit the mathematical foundations of gauge theory (GT) because we have proved that EM was depending on the conformal group and not on U(1), with a shift by one step to the left in the physical interpretation of the differential sequence involved.

Distinguished Connections on Finsler Algebroids

Considering the prolongation of a Lie algebroid,the authors introduce Finsler algebroids and present important geometric objects on these spaces.Important endomorphisms like conservative and Barthel,Cartan tensor and some distinguished connections like Berwald,Cartan,Chern-Rund and Hashiguchi are introduced and studied.

Jacobi Structures on Affine Bundles

Abstract We study affine Jacobi structures （brackets） on an affine bundle π ： A → M, i.e. Jacobi brackets that close on affine functions. We prove that if the rank of A is non-zero, there is a one-toone correspondence between affine Jacobi structures on A and Lie algebroid structures on the vector bundle A^＋ = ∪p∈M Aff（Ap, R） of affine functionals. In the case rank A = 0, it is shown that there is a one-to-one correspondence between affine Jacobi structures on A and local Lie algebras on A^＋. Some examples and applications, also for the linear case, are discussed. For a special type of affine Jacobi structures which are canonically exhibited （strongly-affine or affine-homogeneous Jacobi structures） over a real vector space of finite dimension, we describe the leaves of its characteristic foliation as the orbits of an affine representation. These affine Jacobi structures can be viewed as an analog of the Kostant-Arnold-Liouville linear Poisson structure on the dual space of a real finite-dimensional Lie algebra.