Characterization of higher-order tangent bundles (Q1892779)

The most interesting problem in the framework of (higher-order) almost tangent manifolds is to characterize when an integrable (higher-order) almost tangent manifold is in fact a (higher-order) tangent bundle of some manifold. Local characterization being given by integrability (in the sense of \(G\)-structures), the global characterization is far from easy. The main result in this paper is of this global nature: if \((M,J)\) is an integrable almost tangent manifold of order \(k\) satisfying some global properties (too technical to be reproduced here), then \(M\) is diffeomorphic to the tangent bundle \(T^k S\) of order \(k\) of some manifold \(S\), the diffeomorphism being compatible with their respectives almost tangent structures. This result generalizes those of \textit{M. Crampin} and \textit{G. Thompson} [Math. Proc. Camb. Philos. Soc. 98, 61-71 (1985; Zbl 0572.53031)] and \textit{G. Thompson} and \textit{V. Schwardmann} [Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 327, No. 1, 313-328 (1991; Zbl 0737.53035)], for the order \(k = 1\). The relevance of this result in the framework of singular Lagrangian theories is shown by an application to the reduction of a singular Lagrangian.