English

On 5-manifolds admitting rank two distributions of Cartan type

Differential Geometry 2019-07-08 v3 K-Theory and Homology

Abstract

We consider the question whether an orientable 5-manifold can be equipped with a rank two distribution of Cartan type and what 2-plane bundles can be realized. We obtain a complete answer for open manifolds. In the closed case, we settle the topological part of this problem and present partial results concerning its geometric aspects and new examples.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1603.09700,
  title  = {On 5-manifolds admitting rank two distributions of Cartan type},
  author = {Shantanu Dave and Stefan Haller},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1603.09700},
  year   = {2019}
}

Comments

v3: accepted manuscript, added journal reference, DOI, and secondary MSC classification. v2: results unchanged; no substantial changes; minor modifications (typos; additional references; a paragraph on existence of Engel structures in the introduction; a remark on the simply connected case below Theorem 1; more comments at the beginning of Section 4)