Local invariants of divergence-free webs (Q2112421)

A divergence-free \(n\)-web is understood as a family \(\mathcal{W}=\{ \mathcal{F}_{1},\dots,\mathcal{F}_{n}\}\) of \(n\) foliations in general position on an \(m\)-dimensional manifold \(M\) endowed with a volume form \(\Omega\). A diffeomorphism \(\varphi :M\to N\) is an equivalence of divergence-free webs \(\{\mathcal{F}_{1},\dots,\mathcal{F}_{n}, \Omega_{M}\}\) on \(M\) and \(\{\mathcal{G}_{1},\dots,\mathcal{G}_{n}, \Omega_{N}\}\) on \(N\) if \(\varphi\) carries the leaves of \(\mathcal{F}_{j}\) onto the leaves of \(\mathcal{G}_{\sigma (j)}\), where \(\sigma\) is a permutation of \(\{ 1, \dots ,n\}\), and satisfies \(\varphi ^{*} \Omega_{N}=\Omega_{M}\). A divergence-free \(n\)-web is said to be locally trivial if it is locally equivalent to the trivial \(n\)-web of \(\mathbb{R}^{m}\). In the present paper, two local invariants of such a geometric structure are introduced. The first one is related to the curvature of the natural connection associated to the structure. This connection was introduced by \textit{S. Tabachnikov} [Differ. Geom. Appl. 3, No. 3, 265--284 (1993; Zbl 0789.53019)] for the case of 2-webs in a manifold with a volume form. The second invariant is the nonuniformity tensor of the divergence-free \(n\)-web, which is a symmetric covariant 2-tensor field \(\mathcal{K}\), recalling the curvature of the Chern connection of a 3-web (that measures if a 3-web is hexagonal or not), i.e., it is related to the notion of planar 3-web holonomy, studied many years before by \textit{W. Blaschke} and \textit{G. Bol} [Geometrie der Gewebe. Topologische Fragen der Differentialgeometrie. Berlin: Julius Springer (1938; JFM 64.0727.03)]. It is proved that the nonuniformity tensor of the divergence-free \(n\)-web of codimension 1 is the Ricci curvature tensor of the natural connection. Main results of the paper concern characterizations of local triviality of such a divergence-free \(n\)-web. In particular, it is proved that vanishing of either of those invariants characterizes trivial divergence-free web-germs up to equivalence. The result corresponding to the first invariant generalizes another one obtained in the quoted paper of Tabachnikov for the case \(n=2\). The paper is deep and it is carefully written. Besides, many examples are shown. The last section is about applications in general relativity.