Homological equations for tensor fields and periodic averaging (Q455586)

The authors extend the so-called homological equation to arbitrary tensor fields on a manifold \(M\). Let us recall that given a vector field \(X\) on \(M\) whose flow is periodic with period function \(T : M \longrightarrow \mathbb R\), then given a function \(G \in C^{\infty}(M)\), there are smooth functions \(F\) and \(\tilde{G}\) satisfying the homological equation \[ {\mathcal L}_X \, F = G - \tilde{G} \] and the condition \[ {\mathcal L}_X \, \tilde{G} = 0. \] The key point to solve the above problem lies on the decomposition \[ C^{\infty}(M) = \text{Ker} \, {\mathcal L}_X \oplus \text{Im} \, {\mathcal L}_X \] The homological equation is important to study normal forms. In this paper, the authors discuss the above problem for arbitrary tensor fields \(F, G\) and \(\tilde{G}\), and obtain some generalizations to the case of multivector fields and differential forms.