An integral formula for singular distributions (Q2301576)

The paper provides interesting contributions to the differential geometry of singular distributions, which are described by the images of smooth endomorphisms of the tangent bundle. The first contribution is a generalised notion of divergence for \((1,k)\)-tensors over a Riemannian manifold, relatively to a smooth endomorphism of the tangent bundle. This notion leads to a generalised Stokes theorem, and a useful modified version of it which holds for complete open Riemannian manifolds. In particular, the classical case follows by choosing the identity endomorphism. Another important result is a generalised Codazzi equation, for any pair of smooth endomorphisms which describes singular transversal distributions and in addition is allowed by the Levi-Civita connection, which means that some compatibility conditions are satisfied. In the particular case of a pair of complementary orthogonal regular distributions, of course, this equation reduces to the usual Codazzi equation. Moreover, it is shown that for a self-adjoint pair of endomorphisms the generalised Codazzi equation provides an expression for the mixed scalar curvature in terms of invariants of the distributions, and also an integral formula that generalizes another one already found by Walczak for complementary orthogonal regular distributions. Finally, the modified Stokes theorem and the expression for the mixed scalar curvature are used to get some new results on the splitting of manifolds.