English

Cartan calculus in tangent categories

Category Theory 2026-07-13 v1 Differential Geometry

Abstract

We determine the structure needed in a tangent category in the sense of Rosick\'y and Cockett-Cruttwell to construct the Cartan calculus on all objects. The missing ingredient is a scalar multiplication by a commutative ring object RR, playing the role of the smooth real line, which equips the tangent bundle of every object with the structure of an RR-module compatible with the tangent structure. We show that under these axioms the Lie algebra of vector fields acts by derivations on the ring of RR-valued functions and satisfies the Leibniz rule. In other words, the tangent bundle is an abstract Lie algebroid, so that the Lie algebra of vector fields is a Lie-Rinehart algebra over the ring of functions. Consequently, every object carries a Cartan calculus of Lie-Rinehart forms, given by the Chevalley-Eilenberg complex together with its differential, inner derivative, and Lie derivative. Examples include the tangent categories of smooth manifolds, GG-manifolds, Lie groupoids, log manifolds, pro-manifolds, elastic diffeological spaces, affine and general schemes, graded manifolds, and affine CC^\infty-schemes.

Cite

@article{arxiv.2607.11169,
  title  = {Cartan calculus in tangent categories},
  author = {Lory Aintablian and Christian Blohmann},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2607.11169},
  year   = {2026}
}

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