A new geometric structure on tangent bundles

From MaRDI portal
Publication:2667799



Abstract: For a Riemannian manifold (N,g), we construct a scalar flat metric G in the tangent bundle TN. It is locally conformally flat if and only if either, N is a 2-dimensional manifold or, (N,g) is a real space form. It is also shown that G is locally symmetric if and only if g is locally symmetric. We then study submanifolds in TN and, in particular, find the conditions for a curve to be geodesic. The conditions for a Lagrangian graph to be minimal or Hamiltonian minimal in the tangent bundle TmathbbRn of the Euclidean real space mathbbRn are studied. Finally, using the cross product in mathbbR3 we show that the space of oriented lines in mathbbR3 can be minimally isometrically embedded in TmathbbR3.


The geometry of the tangent bundle \(TN\) of a Riemannian manifold \((N,g)\) has been a topic of considerable interest for at least 60 years. Several different geometries on the tangent bundle \(TN\) have been constructed using the splitting \(TTN = HN \oplus VN\) of \(TTN\) into a horizontal and a vertical part, where the subbundles \(HN\) and \(VN\) are both isomorphic to the tangent bundle \(TN\). Using the Riemannian metric \(g\) one can define a canonical symplectic structure \(\Omega\) on \(TN\) by the musical isomorphism between the tangent bundle and the cotangent bundle. For \(\bar{X}\in TTN\), write \(\bar{X}\simeq \left(\Pi \bar{X}, K \bar{X}\right)\) where \(\Pi \bar{X}\in HN\) and \(K\bar{X}\in VN\). In this paper, the authors use an almost paracomplex structure \(J\) on \(TN\) compatible with \(\Omega\) to construct a neutral metric \(G\) on \(TN\). In particular, they study \(TN\) endowed with the following neutral metric \[ G(\bar{X},\bar{Y}) = g(\Pi \bar{X}, K\bar{Y}) + g(K\bar{X},\Pi\bar{Y}). \] This paper is devoted to the study of the geometric properties and submanifolds of the neutral metric \(G\). In Theorem 1, they describe the four main properties of the neutral metric \(G\), showing that it is scalar flat and specifying under which conditions it is Einstein, locally conformally flat and locally symmetric. In Theorem 2, they characterize the geodesics of \(G\). In Theorem 3, the authors show that if \(TN\) contains a Lagrangian graph with parallel mean curvature, then the neutral metric \(G\) is Ricci flat. In Theorem 4, they prove the existence of a minimal isometric embedding of the space of oriented lines in \(\mathbb{R}^3\), \((\mathbb{L}(\mathbb{R}^3),\mathbb{G},\mathbb{J})\) with geometry derived from the standard Kähler structure \((T\mathbb{S}^2,g,J)\), into \((T\mathbb{R}^3,G)\). The authors introduce this new geometry in the context of almost Kähler and almost para-Kähler structures in Section 2. Theorem 1 is proven in Section 3, while proofs of Theorems 2 and 3 are contained in Sections 4.1 and 4.2, respectively. Theorem 4 is proven in the final section.











This page was built for publication: A new geometric structure on tangent bundles

Report a bug (only for logged in users!)Click here to report a bug for this page (MaRDI item Q2667799)