Abstract
We introduce the reader to a fundamental exterior differential system of Riemannian geometry which arises naturally with every oriented Riemannian n + 1-manifold M. Such system is related to the well-known metric almost contact structure on the unit tangent sphere bundle SM, so we endeavor to include the theory in the field of contact systems. Our EDS is already known in dimensions 2 and 3, where it was used by Griffiths in applications to mechanical problems and Lagrangian systems. It is also known in any dimension but just for flat Euclidean space. Having found the Lagrangian forms \(\alpha _{i} \in \varOmega ^{n}\), 0 ≤ i ≤ n, we are led to the associated functionals \(\mathcal{F}_{i}(N) =\int _{N}\alpha _{i}\), on the set of hypersurfaces N ⊂ M, and to their Poincaré-Cartan forms. A particular functional relates to scalar curvature and thus we are confronted with an interesting new equation.
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Acknowledgements
The research leading to these results has received funding from the People Programme (Marie Curie Actions) of the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under REA grant agreement no. PIEF-GA-2012-332209.
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Albuquerque, R. (2014). Riemannian Questions with a Fundamental Differential System. In: Suh, Y.J., Berndt, J., Ohnita, Y., Kim, B.H., Lee, H. (eds) Real and Complex Submanifolds. Springer Proceedings in Mathematics & Statistics, vol 106. Springer, Tokyo. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-4-431-55215-4_34
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-4-431-55215-4_34
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