Cartan connection
In the mathematical field of differential geometry, a Cartan connection is a flexible
generalization of the notion of an affine connection. It may also be regarded as a
specialization of the general concept of a principal connection, in which the geometry of the
principal bundle is tied to the geometry of the base manifold using a solder form. Cartan
connections describe the geometry of manifolds modelled on homogeneous spaces.
The theory of Cartan connections was developed by Élie Cartan, as part of (and a way of
formulating) his method of moving frames (repère mobile).[1] The main idea is to
develop a suitable notion of the connection forms and curvature using moving frames
adapted to the particular geometrical problem at hand. In relativity or Riemannian
geometry, orthonormal frames are used to obtain a description of the Levi-Civita
connection as a Cartan connection. For Lie groups, Maurer–Cartan frames are used to view
the Maurer–Cartan form of the group as a Cartan connection.
Cartan reformulated the differential geometry of (pseudo) Riemannian geometry, as well as
the differential geometry of manifolds equipped with some non-metric structure, including
Lie groups and homogeneous spaces. The term 'Cartan connection' most often refers to
Cartan's formulation of a (pseudo-)Riemannian, affine, projective, or conformal
connection. Although these are the most commonly used Cartan connections, they are
special cases of a more general concept.
Cartan's approach seems at first to be coordinate dependent because of the choice of
frames it involves. However, it is not, and the notion can be described precisely using the
language of principal bundles. Cartan connections induce covariant derivatives and other
differential operators on certain associated bundles, hence a notion of parallel transport.
They have many applications in geometry and physics: see the method of moving frames,
Cartan formalism and Einstein–Cartan theory for some examples.
Introduction
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At its roots, geometry consists of a notion of congruence between different objects in a
space. In the late 19th century, notions of congruence were typically supplied by the action
of a Lie group on space. Lie groups generally act quite rigidly, and so a Cartan geometry is a
generalization of this notion of congruence to allow for curvature to be present. The flat
Cartan geometries—those with zero curvature—are locally equivalent to homogeneous
spaces, hence geometries in the sense of Klein.
A Klein geometry consists of a Lie group G together with a Lie subgroup H of G. Together G
and H determine a homogeneous space G/H, on which the group G acts by left-translation.
Klein's aim was then to study objects living on the homogeneous space which were
congruent by the action of G. A Cartan geometry extends the notion of a Klein geometry by
attaching to each point of a manifold a copy of a Klein geometry, and to regard this copy as
tangent to the manifold. Thus the geometry of the manifold is infinitesimally identical to
that of the Klein geometry, but globally can be quite different. In particular, Cartan
geometries no longer have a well-defined action of G on them. However, a Cartan
connection supplies a way of connecting the infinitesimal model spaces within the
manifold by means of parallel transport.
Motivation
Consider a smooth surface S in 3-dimensional Euclidean space R3. Near to any point, S can
be approximated by its tangent plane at that point, which is an affine subspace of Euclidean
space. The affine subspaces are model surfaces—they are the simplest surfaces in R3, and
are homogeneous under the Euclidean group of the plane, hence they are Klein geometries
in the sense of Felix Klein's Erlangen programme. Every smooth surface S has a unique
affine plane tangent to it at each point. The family of all such planes in R3, one attached to
each point of S, is called the congruence of tangent planes. A tangent plane can be
"rolled" along S, and as it does so the point of contact traces out a curve on S. Conversely,
given a curve on S, the tangent plane can be rolled along that curve. This provides a way to
identify the tangent planes at different points along the curve by affine (in fact Euclidean)
transformations, and is an example of a Cartan connection called an affine connection.
Another example is obtained by replacing the planes, as model surfaces, by spheres, which
are homogeneous under the Möbius group of conformal transformations. There is no
longer a unique sphere tangent to a smooth surface S at each point, since the radius of the
sphere is undetermined. This can be fixed by supposing that the sphere has the same mean
curvature as S at the point of contact. Such spheres can again be rolled along curves on S,
and this equips S with another type of Cartan connection called a conformal connection.
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Differential geometers in the late 19th and early 20th centuries were very interested in
using model families such as planes or spheres to describe the geometry of surfaces. A
family of model spaces attached to each point of a surface S is called a congruence: in the
previous examples there is a canonical choice of such a congruence. A Cartan connection
provides an identification between the model spaces in the congruence along any curve in
S. An important feature of these identifications is that the point of contact of the model
space with S always moves with the curve. This generic condition is characteristic of
Cartan connections.
In the modern treatment of affine connections, the point of contact is viewed as the origin
in the tangent plane (which is then a vector space), and the movement of the origin is
corrected by a translation, and so Cartan connections are not needed. However, there is no
canonical way to do this in general: in particular for the conformal connection of a sphere
congruence, it is not possible to separate the motion of the point of contact from the rest of
the motion in a natural way.
In both of these examples the model space is a homogeneous space G/H.
In the first case, G/H is the affine plane, with G = Aff(R2) the affine group of the plane,
and H = GL(2) the corresponding general linear group.
In the second case, G/H is the conformal (or celestial) sphere, with G = O+(3,1) the
(orthochronous) Lorentz group, and H the stabilizer of a null line in R3,1.
The Cartan geometry of S consists of a copy of the model space G/H at each point of S (with
a marked point of contact) together with a notion of "parallel transport" along curves which
identifies these copies using elements of G. This notion of parallel transport is generic in
the intuitive sense that the point of contact always moves along the curve.
In general, let G be a group with a subgroup H, and M a manifold of the same dimension as
G/H. Then, roughly speaking, a Cartan connection on M is a G-connection which is generic
with respect to a reduction to H.
Affine connections
An affine connection on a manifold M is a connection on the frame bundle (principal
bundle) of M (or equivalently, a connection on the tangent bundle (vector bundle) of M). A
key aspect of the Cartan connection point of view is to elaborate this notion in the context
of principal bundles (which could be called the "general or abstract theory of frames").
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Let H be a Lie group, its Lie algebra. Then a principal H-bundle is a fiber bundle P
over M with a smooth action of H on P which is free and transitive on the fibers. Thus P is a
smooth manifold with a smooth map π: P → M which looks locally like the trivial bundle M
× H → M. The frame bundle of M is a principal GL(n)-bundle, while if M is a Riemannian
manifold, then the orthonormal frame bundle is a principal O(n)-bundle.
Let Rh denote the (right) action of h ∈ H on P. The derivative of this action defines a
vertical vector field on P for each element ξ of : if h(t) is a 1-parameter subgroup with
h(0)=e (the identity element) and h '(0)=ξ, then the corresponding vertical vector field is
A principal H-connection on P is a 1-form on P, with values in the Lie
algebra of H, such that
1.
2. for any , ω(Xξ) = ξ (identically on P).
The intuitive idea is that ω(X) provides a vertical component of X, using the isomorphism
of the fibers of π with H to identify vertical vectors with elements of .
Frame bundles have additional structure called the solder form, which can be used to
extend a principal connection on P to a trivialization of the tangent bundle of P called an
absolute parallelism.
In general, suppose that M has dimension n and H acts on Rn (this could be any n-
dimensional real vector space). A solder form on a principal H-bundle P over M is an Rn-
valued 1-form θ: TP → Rn which is horizontal and equivariant so that it induces a bundle
homomorphism from TM to the associated bundle P ×H Rn. This is furthermore required
to be a bundle isomorphism. Frame bundles have a (canonical or tautological) solder form
which sends a tangent vector X ∈ TpP to the coordinates of dπp(X) ∈ Tπ(p)M with respect
to the frame p.
The pair (ω, θ) (a principal connection and a solder form) defines a 1-form η on P, with
values in the Lie algebra of the semidirect product G of H with Rn, which provides an
isomorphism of each tangent space TpP with . It induces a principal connection α on the
associated principal G-bundle P ×H G. This is a Cartan connection.
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Cartan connections generalize affine connections in two ways.
The action of H on Rn need not be effective. This allows, for example, the theory to
include spin connections, in which H is the spin group Spin(n) rather than the
orthogonal group O(n).
The group G need not be a semidirect product of H with Rn.
Klein geometries as model spaces
Klein's Erlangen programme suggested that geometry could be regarded as a study of
homogeneous spaces: in particular, it is the study of the many geometries of interest to
geometers of 19th century (and earlier). A Klein geometry consisted of a space, along with a
law for motion within the space (analogous to the Euclidean transformations of classical
Euclidean geometry) expressed as a Lie group of transformations. These generalized spaces
turn out to be homogeneous smooth manifolds diffeomorphic to the quotient space of a Lie
group by a Lie subgroup. The extra differential structure that these homogeneous spaces
possess allows one to study and generalize their geometry using calculus.
The general approach of Cartan is to begin with such a smooth Klein geometry, given by a
Lie group G and a Lie subgroup H, with associated Lie algebras and , respectively. Let P
be the underlying principal homogeneous space of G. A Klein geometry is the homogeneous
space given by the quotient P/H of P by the right action of H. There is a right H-action on
the fibres of the canonical projection
π: P → P/H
given by Rhg = gh. Moreover, each fibre of π is a copy of H. P has the structure of a
principal H-bundle over P/H.[2]
A vector field X on P is vertical if dπ(X) = 0. Any ξ ∈ gives rise to a canonical vertical
vector field Xξ by taking the derivative of the right action of the 1-parameter subgroup of H
associated to ξ. The Maurer-Cartan form η of P is the -valued one-form on P which
identifies each tangent space with the Lie algebra. It has the following properties:
1. Ad(h) Rh*η = η for all h in H
2. η(Xξ) = ξ for all ξ in
3. for all g∈P, η restricts a linear isomorphism of TgP with (η is an absolute parallelism
on P).
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In addition to these properties, η satisfies the structure (or structural) equation
Conversely, one can show that given a manifold M and a principal H-bundle P over M, and
a 1-form η with these properties, then P is locally isomorphic as an H-bundle to the
principal homogeneous bundle G→G/H. The structure equation is the integrability
condition for the existence of such a local isomorphism.
A Cartan geometry is a generalization of a smooth Klein geometry, in which the structure
equation is not assumed, but is instead used to define a notion of curvature. Thus the Klein
geometries are said to be the flat models for Cartan geometries.[3]
Pseudogroups
Cartan connections are closely related to pseudogroup structures on a manifold. Each is
thought of as modelled on a Klein geometry G/H, in a manner similar to the way in which
I.e., a fiber. Riemannian geometry is modelled on Euclidean space. On a manifold M, one imagines
Pseudogroup attaching to each point of M a copy of the model space G/H. The symmetry of the model
structure
not give a fiber space is then built into the Cartan geometry or pseudogroup structure by positing that the
geometry does
bundle (except
for smoother model spaces of nearby points are related by a transformation in G. The fundamental
structure
because of T)
difference between a Cartan geometry and pseudogroup geometry is that the symmetry for
a Cartan geometry relates infinitesimally close points by an infinitesimal transformation in
G (i.e., an element of the Lie algebra of G) and the analogous notion of symmetry for a
pseudogroup structure applies for points that are physically separated within the manifold.
The process of attaching spaces to points, and the attendant symmetries, can be concretely
realized by using special coordinate systems.[4] To each point p ∈ M, a neighborhood Up of
p is given along with a mapping φp : Up → G/H. In this way, the model space is attached to
each point of M by realizing M locally at each point as an open subset of G/H. We think of
this as a family of coordinate systems on M, parametrized by the points of M. Two such
parametrized coordinate systems φ and φ′ are H-related if there is an element hp ∈ H,
parametrized by p, such that
φ′p = hp φp.[5]
This freedom corresponds roughly to the physicists' notion of a gauge.
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Nearby points are related by joining them with a curve. Suppose that p and p′ are two
points in M joined by a curve pt. Then pt supplies a notion of transport of the model space
along the curve.[6] Let τt : G/H → G/H be the (locally defined) composite map
τt = φpt o φp0−1.
Intuitively, τt is the transport map. A pseudogroup structure requires that τt be a
symmetry of the model space for each t: τt ∈ G. A Cartan connection requires only that the
derivative of τt be a symmetry of the model space: τ′0 ∈ g, the Lie algebra of G.
Typical of Cartan, one motivation for introducing the notion of a Cartan connection was to
study the properties of pseudogroups from an infinitesimal point of view. A Cartan
connection defines a pseudogroup precisely when the derivative of the transport map τ′ can
be integrated, thus recovering a true (G-valued) transport map between the coordinate
systems. There is thus an integrability condition at work, and Cartan's method for realizing
integrability conditions was to introduce a differential form.
In this case, τ′0 defines a differential form at the point p as follows. For a curve γ(t) = pt in
M starting at p, we can associate the tangent vector X, as well as a transport map τtγ.
Taking the derivative determines a linear map
So θ defines a g-valued differential 1-form on M.
This form, however, is dependent on the choice of parametrized coordinate system. If h : U
→ H is an H-relation between two parametrized coordinate systems φ and φ′, then the
corresponding values of θ are also related by
where ωH is the Maurer-Cartan form of H.
Formal definition
A Cartan geometry modelled on a homogeneous space G/H can be viewed as a deformation
of this geometry which allows for the presence of curvature. For example:
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a Riemannian manifold can be seen as a deformation of Euclidean space;
a Lorentzian manifold can be seen as a deformation of Minkowski space;
a conformal manifold can be seen as a deformation of the conformal sphere;
a manifold equipped with an affine connection can be seen as a deformation of an
affine space.
There are two main approaches to the definition. In both approaches, M is a smooth
manifold of dimension n, H is a Lie group of dimension m, with Lie algebra , and G is a
Lie group of dimension n+m, with Lie algebra , containing H as a subgroup.
Definition via gauge transitions
A Cartan connection consists[7][8] of a coordinate atlas of open sets U in M, along with
a -valued 1-form θU defined on each chart such that
1. θU : TU → .
2. θU mod : TuU → is a linear isomorphism for every u ∈ U.
3. For any pair of charts U and V in the atlas, there is a smooth mapping h : U ∩ V → H
such that
where ωH is the Maurer-Cartan form of H.
By analogy with the case when the θU came from coordinate systems, condition 3 means
that φU is related to φV by h.
The curvature of a Cartan connection consists of a system of 2-forms defined on the charts,
given by
ΩU satisfy the compatibility condition:
If the forms θU and θV are related by a function h : U ∩ V → H, as above, then ΩV =
Ad(h−1) ΩU
The definition can be made independent of the coordinate systems by forming the quotient
space
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of the disjoint union over all U in the atlas. The equivalence relation ~ is defined on pairs
(x,h1) ∈ U1 × H and (x, h2) ∈ U2 × H, by
(x,h1) ~ (x, h2) if and only if x ∈ U1 ∩ U2, θU is related to θU by h, and h2 = h(x)−1
1 2
h1.
Then P is a principal H-bundle on M, and the compatibility condition on the connection
forms θU implies that they lift to a -valued 1-form η defined on P (see below).
Definition via absolute parallelism
Let P be a principal H bundle over M. Then a Cartan connection[9] is a -valued 1-form
η on P such that
1. for all h in H, Ad(h)Rh*η = η
2. for all ξ in , η(Xξ) = ξ
3. for all p in P, the restriction of η defines a linear isomorphism from the tangent space
TpP to .
The last condition is sometimes called the Cartan condition: it means that η defines an
absolute parallelism on P. The second condition implies that η is already injective on
vertical vectors and that the 1-form η mod , with values in , is horizontal. The vector
space is a representation of H using the adjoint representation of H on , and the first
condition implies that η mod is equivariant. Hence it defines a bundle homomorphism
from TM to the associated bundle . The Cartan condition is equivalent to this
bundle homomorphism being an isomorphism, so that η mod is a solder form.
The curvature of a Cartan connection is the -valued 2-form Ω defined by
Note that this definition of a Cartan connection looks very similar to that of a principal
connection. There are several important differences, however. First, the 1-form η takes
values in , but is only equivariant under the action of H. Indeed, it cannot be equivariant
under the full group G because there is no G bundle and no G action. Secondly, the 1-form
is an absolute parallelism, which intuitively means that η yields information about the
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behavior of additional directions in the principal bundle (rather than simply being a
projection operator onto the vertical space). Concretely, the existence of a solder form
binds (or solders) the Cartan connection to the underlying differential topology of the
manifold.
An intuitive interpretation of the Cartan connection in this form is that it determines a
fracturing of the tautological principal bundle associated to a Klein geometry. Thus Cartan
geometries are deformed analogues of Klein geometries. This deformation is roughly a
prescription for attaching a copy of the model space G/H to each point of M and thinking of
that model space as being tangent to (and infinitesimally identical with) the manifold at a
point of contact. The fibre of the tautological bundle G → G/H of the Klein geometry at the
point of contact is then identified with the fibre of the bundle P. Each such fibre (in G)
carries a Maurer-Cartan form for G, and the Cartan connection is a way of assembling these
Maurer-Cartan forms gathered from the points of contact into a coherent 1-form η defined
on the whole bundle. The fact that only elements of H contribute to the Maurer-Cartan
equation Ad(h)Rh*η = η has the intuitive interpretation that any other elements of G would
move the model space away from the point of contact, and so no longer be tangent to the
manifold.
From the Cartan connection, defined in these terms, one can recover a Cartan connection
as a system of 1-forms on the manifold (as in the gauge definition) by taking a collection of
local trivializations of P given as sections sU : U → P and letting θU = s*η be the pullbacks
of the Cartan connection along the sections.
As principal connections
Another way in which to define a Cartan connection is as a principal connection on a
certain principal G-bundle. From this perspective, a Cartan connection consists of
a principal G-bundle Q over M
a principal G-connection α on Q (the Cartan connection)
a principal H-subbundle P of Q (i.e., a reduction of structure group)
such that the pullback η of α to P satisfies the Cartan condition.
The principal connection α on Q can be recovered from the form η by taking Q to be the
associated bundle P ×H G. Conversely, the form η can be recovered from α by pulling back
along the inclusion P ⊂ Q.
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Since α is a principal connection, it induces a connection on any associated bundle to Q. In
particular, the bundle Q ×G G/H of homogeneous spaces over M, whose fibers are copies of
the model space G/H, has a connection. The reduction of structure group to H is
equivalently given by a section s of E = Q ×G G/H. The fiber of over x in M may
be viewed as the tangent space at s(x) to the fiber of Q ×G G/H over x. Hence the Cartan
condition has the intuitive interpretation that the model spaces are tangent to M along the
section s. Since this identification of tangent spaces is induced by the connection, the
marked points given by s always move under parallel transport.
Definition by an Ehresmann connection
Yet another way to define a Cartan connection is with an Ehresmann connection on the
bundle E = Q ×G G/H of the preceding section.[10] A Cartan connection then consists of
A fiber bundle π : E → M with fibre G/H and vertical space VE ⊂ TE.
A section s : M → E.
A G-connection θ : TE → VE such that
s*θx : TxM → Vs(x)E is a linear isomorphism of vector spaces for all x ∈ M.
This definition makes rigorous the intuitive ideas presented in the introduction. First, the
preferred section s can be thought of as identifying a point of contact between the manifold
and the tangent space. The last condition, in particular, means that the tangent space of M
at x is isomorphic to the tangent space of the model space at the point of contact. So the
model spaces are, in this way, tangent to the manifold.
This definition also brings prominently into focus the idea of development. If xt is a curve
in M, then the Ehresmann connection on E supplies an associated parallel transport map
τt : Ex → Ex from the fibre over the endpoint of the curve to the fibre over the initial
t 0
point. In particular, since E is equipped with a preferred section s, the points s(xt)
transport back to the fibre over x0 and trace out a curve in Ex . This curve is then called the
0
development of the curve xt.
To show that this definition is equivalent to the others above, one must introduce a suitable
notion of a moving frame for the bundle E. In general, this is possible for any G-connection
on a fibre bundle with structure group G. See Ehresmann connection#Associated bundles
for more details.
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Special Cartan connections
Reductive Cartan connections
Let P be a principal H-bundle on M, equipped with a
Cartan connection η : TP → . If is a reductive
module for H, meaning that admits an Ad(H)-
invariant splitting of vector spaces , then the
-component of η generalizes the solder form for an
affine connection.[11] In detail, η splits into and
components: Development of a curve into
η=η +η . the model space at x0
Note that the 1-form η is a principal H-connection on
the original Cartan bundle P. Moreover, the 1-form η satisfies:
η (X) = 0 for every vertical vector X ∈ TP. (η is horizontal.)
Rh*η = Ad(h−1)η for every h ∈ H. (η is equivariant under the right H-action.)
In other words, η is a solder form for the bundle P.
Hence, P equipped with the form η defines a (first order) H-structure on M. The form η
defines a connection on the H-structure.
Parabolic Cartan connections
If is a semisimple Lie algebra with parabolic subalgebra (i.e., contains a maximal
solvable subalgebra of ) and G and P are associated Lie groups, then a Cartan connection
modelled on (G,P, , ) is called a parabolic Cartan geometry, or simply a parabolic
geometry. A distinguishing feature of parabolic geometries is a Lie algebra structure on its
cotangent spaces: this arises because the perpendicular subspace ⊥ of in with respect
to the Killing form of is a subalgebra of , and the Killing form induces a natural duality
between ⊥ and . Thus the bundle associated to ⊥ is isomorphic to the cotangent
bundle.
Parabolic geometries include many of those of interest in research and applications of
Cartan connections, such as the following examples:
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Conformal connections: Here G = SO(p+1,q+1), and P is the stabilizer of a null ray in
Rn+2.
Projective connections: Here G = PGL(n+1) and P is the stabilizer of a point in RPn.
CR structures and Cartan-Chern-Tanaka connections: G = PSU(p+1,q+1), P =
stabilizer of a point on the projective null hyperquadric.
Contact projective connections:[12] Here G = SP(2n+2) and P is the stabilizer of the ray
generated by the first standard basis vector in Rn+2.
Generic rank 2 distributions on 5-manifolds: Here G = Aut(Os) is the automorphism
group of the algebra Os of split octonions, a closed subgroup of SO(3,4), and P is the
intersection of G with the stabilizer of the isotropic line spanned by the first standard
basis vector in R7 viewed as the purely imaginary split octonions (orthogonal
complement of the unit element in Os).[13]
Associated differential operators
Covariant differentiation
Suppose that M is a Cartan geometry modelled on G/H, and let (Q,α) be the principal G-
bundle with connection, and (P,η) the corresponding reduction to H with η equal to the
pullback of α. Let V a representation of G, and form the vector bundle V = Q ×G V over M.
Then the principal G-connection α on Q induces a covariant derivative on V, which is a first
order linear differential operator
where denotes the space of k-forms on M with values in V so that is the
space of sections of V and is the space of sections of Hom(TM,V). For any section
v of V, the contraction of the covariant derivative ∇v with a vector field X on M is denoted
∇Xv and satisfies the following Leibniz rule:
for any smooth function f on M.
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The covariant derivative can also be constructed from the Cartan connection η on P. In fact,
constructing it in this way is slightly more general in that V need not be a fully fledged
representation of G.[14] Suppose instead that V is a ( , H)-module: a representation of the
group H with a compatible representation of the Lie algebra . Recall that a section v of the
induced vector bundle V over M can be thought of as an H-equivariant map P → V. This is
the point of view we shall adopt. Let X be a vector field on M. Choose any right-invariant
lift to the tangent bundle of P. Define
In order to show that ∇v is well defined, it must:
1. be independent of the chosen lift
2. be equivariant, so that it descends to a section of the bundle V.
For (1), the ambiguity in selecting a right-invariant lift of X is a transformation of the form
where is the right-invariant vertical vector field induced from . So,
calculating the covariant derivative in terms of the new lift , one has
since by taking the differential of the equivariance property
at h equal to the identity element.
For (2), observe that since v is equivariant and is right-invariant, is equivariant.
On the other hand, since η is also equivariant, it follows that is equivariant as well.
The fundamental or universal derivative
Suppose that V is only a representation of the subgroup H and not necessarily the larger
group G. Let be the space of V-valued differential k-forms on P. In the presence
of a Cartan connection, there is a canonical isomorphism
given by where and
.
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For each k, the exterior derivative is a first order operator differential operator
and so, for k=0, it defines a differential operator
Because η is equivariant, if v is equivariant, so is Dv := φ(dv). It follows that this composite
descends to a first order differential operator D from sections of V=P×HV to sections of the
bundle . This is called the fundamental or universal derivative, or
fundamental D-operator.
Notes
1. Although Cartan only began formalizing this theory in particular cases in the 1920s
(Cartan 1926), he made much use of the general idea much earlier. The high point of
his remarkable 1910 paper on Pfaffian systems in five variables is the construction of a
Cartan connection modelled on a 5-dimensional homogeneous space for the
exceptional Lie group G2, which he and Engels had discovered independently in 1894.
2. Chevalley 1946, p. 110.
3. See R. Hermann (1983), Appendix 1–3 to Cartan (1951).
4. This appears to be Cartan's way of viewing the connection. Cf. Cartan 1923, p. 362;
Cartan 1924, p. 208 especially ..un repère définissant un système de coordonnées
projectives...; Cartan 1951, p. 34. Modern readers can arrive at various interpretations
of these statements, cf. Hermann's 1983 notes in Cartan 1951, pp. 384–385, 477.
5. More precisely, hp is required to be in the isotropy group of φp(p), which is a group in G
isomorphic to H.
6. In general, this is not the rolling map described in the motivation, although it is related.
7. Sharpe 1997.
8. Lumiste 2001a.
9. This is the standard definition. Cf. Hermann (1983), Appendix 2 to Cartan 1951;
Kobayashi 1970, p. 127; Sharpe 1997; Slovák 1997.
10. Ehresmann 1950, Kobayashi 1957, Lumiste 2001b.
11. For a treatment of affine connections from this point of view, see Kobayashi & Nomizu
(1996, Volume 1).
12. See, for example, Fox (2005).
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13. Sagerschnig 2006; Čap & Sagerschnig 2009.
14. See, for instance, Čap & Gover (2002, Definition 2.4).
References
Čap, Andreas; Gover, A. Rod (2002), "Tractor calculi for parabolic geometries]",
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Kobayashi, Shoshichi (1972), Transformations Groups in Differential Geometry
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External links
Ü. Lumiste (2001) [1994], "Affine connection" ([Link]
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title=Cartan_connection&oldid=1236104926"
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