Bi-paracontact structures and Legendre foliations (Q616642)

The author studies the contact and bi-paracontact structures on a \(2n+1\)-dimensional manifold \(M\). A contact manifold is a \((2n+1)\)-dimensional manifold which carries a \(1\)-form \(\eta\), called the contact form, such that \(\eta\wedge (d\eta)^n\neq 0\) everywhere on \(M\). It determines a vector field \(\xi\) (Reeb field) such that \(\eta(\xi)=1\), \(\xi\lrcorner\, d\eta=0\). A Legendre distribution is \(n\)-dimensional distribution \(L\subset\mathcal D=\ker\eta\) satisfying the condition \(d\eta(X,Y)=0\) for any \(X,Y\in\Gamma(L)\). If an \(n\)-dimensional distribution \(L\subset\mathcal D=\ker\eta\) is integrable, then it is called a Legendre foliation. If \(M\) is endowed with two transversal Legendrian distributions, then it is called a bi-Legendrian manifold. An almost contact structure on a \((2n+1)\)-dimensional manifold \(M\) is a triplet \((\phi,\xi,\eta)\) where \(\phi\) is a \((1,1)\)-tensor field, \(\eta\) a 1-form and \(\xi\) a vector field on \(M\) satisfying the conditions: \( \phi^2=-\text{Id}+\eta\otimes\xi\), \(\eta(\xi)=1\). An almost paracontact structure on a \((2n+1)\)-dimensional manifold \(M\) is a triplet \((\phi,\xi,\eta)\) where \(\phi\) is a \((1,1)\)-tensor field, \(\eta\) a 1-form and \(\xi\) a vector field on \(M\) satisfying the conditions: \( \phi^2= \text{Id}-\eta\otimes\xi\), \(\eta(\xi)=1\). The tensor field \(\phi\) induces an almost paracomplex structure on \(\mathcal D=\ker\eta\). An almost bi-paracontact structure on a contact manifold \((M,\eta)\) is a triplet \((\phi_1,\phi_2,\phi_3)\) where \(\phi_3\) is an almost contact structure compatible with \(\eta\), and \(\phi_1,\phi_2\) are two anti-commuting tensors on \(M\) such that \(\phi_1^2=\phi_2^2= \text{Id}-\eta\otimes\xi\) and \(\phi_1\phi_2=\phi_3\). Then \(\phi_1\) and \(\phi_2\) are almost paracontact structures. The author proves that, if an almost bi-paracontact structure is defined on a contact manifold \((M,\eta)\), then, under some mild assumptions, \(M\) carries two bi-Legendrian structures, and conversly, if two bi-Legendrian structures are defined on a contact manifold, then it admits a bi-paracontact structure. The author defines a canonical connection of an almost bi-paracontact manifold and studies its properties. It is proved that any contact metric manifold whose Reeb field belongs to the \((\kappa,\mu)\)-nullity distribution canonically carries an almost bi-paracontact structure.