Automorphisms of Ehresmann connections (Q1046911)

It is proved that a diffeomorphism \(\varphi\) of a manifold \(M\) is an automorphism of the Ehresmann connection \(\mathcal H\) if and only if (a) \(\varphi\) is an automorphism of the semispray \(S:=\mathcal H\circ \delta\), where \(\delta :v\in TM \mapsto (v,v)\in TM\times_M TM\), and (b) \(\varphi \circ T^s=T^s \circ \varphi\), where \(T^s\) is the strong torsion of \(\mathcal H\). From this, it follows that \(\varphi\) is an automorphism of \(\mathcal H\) if and only if \(\varphi\) is an affinity, that is, preserves the geodesics of \(\mathcal H\), and satisfies (b). This result generalizes and to some extent strengthens the classical theorem on automorphisms of a manifold with covariant derivation.