On automorphism groups of some types of generic distributions (Q1038525)

In his famous `five variables' paper [Ann. Sci. École Norm. Sup. (3) 27, 109--192 (1910; JFM 41.0417.01)] \textit{E. Cartan} studied distributions of rank \(2\) and \(3\) on \(5\)-dimensional manifolds, which, in addition to being bracket generating, satisfy a genericity condition. To such distributions one can associate the so-called Cartan connection on a certain principal bundle and one has that the automorphisms of such a distribution form a Lie group of finite dimension. This result of Cartan has been extended to other generic types of distributions. Many of these constructions fall into the class of parabolic geometries, since the homogeneous model of the geometry is the quotient of a semisimple Lie group by a parabolic subgroup. In the present paper, the authors show how strong restrictions on the possible dimensions of automorphism groups of such distributions can be obtained by the existence of Cartan connections. In particular, they discuss the generic distributions of rank \(2\) in dimension \(5\), rank \(3\) in dimension \(6\) and rank \(4\) in dimension \(7\).