English

Contact systems and corank one involutive subdistributions

Differential Geometry 2007-05-23 v1 Optimization and Control

Abstract

We give necessary and sufficient geometric conditions for a distribution (or a Pfaffian system) to be locally equivalent to the canonical contact system on Jn(R,Rm), the space of n-jets of maps from R into Rm. We study the geometry of that class of systems, in particular, the existence of corank one involutive subdistributions. We also distinguish regular points, at which the system is equivalent to the canonical contact system, and singular points, at which we propose a new normal form that generalizes the canonical contact system on Jn(R,Rm) in a way analogous to that how Kumpera-Ruiz normal form generalizes the canonical contact system on Jn(R,R), which is also called Goursat normal form.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.math/0004124,
  title  = {Contact systems and corank one involutive subdistributions},
  author = {William Pasillas-Lepine and Witold Respondek},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:math/0004124},
  year   = {2007}
}

Comments

LaTeX2e, 29 pages, submitted to Acta applicandae mathematicae

R2 v1 2026-07-22T16:32:19.971Z