Projective structures and contact forms (Q1892800)

The goal of this paper is to show that a projective structure on a real, simply-connected, smooth manifold \(M\) determines a family of local Lie algebras on \(M\). A manifold \(M\) is said to have a projective structure if there is a fixed atlas on \(M\) with projective coordinate changes. ``A family of local Lie algebras on \(M\)'' means a family of Lie brackets on \(C^ \infty (M)\) that satisfy the localization condition. A. Kirillov's paper in 1976 on local Lie algebras established that a non- degenerate local Lie algebra is determined by a contact or symplectic structure on the manifold. Already in 1924, E. Cartan had introduced the notion of a relationship between projective and contact geometries. The author's contribution, in addition to a proof of the main result quoted above, is an observation apparently not appearing previously in the literature. It is summarized by the following theorem: Let \(M^ n\) be a simply connected manifold. For a projective structure on \(M\) to exist it is necessary and sufficient that there be functions \(f_ 1, f_ 2, \dots, f_{n+1} \in C^ \infty(M)\) such that the form \[ \Omega = \sum^{n + 1}_{i = 1} (-1)^ i f_ idf_ 1 \wedge \dots \wedge \widehat {df}_ i \wedge \dots \wedge df_{n + 1} \] is the volume form on \(M\).