Gauge transformations of Jacobi structures and contact groupoids (Q1741775)

Gauge transformations of Poisson structures associated with certain closed 2-forms were introduced by Severa and Weinstein in connection with Poisson-sigma models (2001). \textit{H. Bursztyn} and \textit{O. Radko} [Ann. Inst. Fourier 53, No. 1, 309--337 (2003; Zbl 1026.58019)] discovered a relationship between gauge transformations and Morita equivalence of Poisson manifolds in the sense of Ping Xu et al. As a generalization, this work defines gauge transformations of Jacobi structures on a manifold. This is related to gauge transformations of Poisson structures via the process of Poissonization. The natural framework of Dirac-Jacobi structures introduced by [\textit{A. Wade}, Lett. Math. Phys. 53, No. 4, 331--348 (2000; Zbl 0982.53069)] is utilized. In short, one defines action of the abelian group of 1-forms on the space of all Dirac-Jacobi structures on a smooth manifold. This is what the gauge transformation of Jacobi structures refers to. It turns out that gauge equivalent Jacobi structures have isomorphic Lichnerowicz-Jacobi cohomology. Moreover, such gauge transformations preserve contact structures and locally conformal symplectic, respectively. It is also interesting that the contact structure of a contact groupoid is effected in an elegant manner by gauge transformations of the Jacobi structure on its base.