Contact Geometry of Second Order I

Abstract

AbstractClassical theory for systems of the first order partial differential equations for a scalar function can be rephrased as the submanifold theory of contact manifolds (geometric first order jet spaces). In the same spirit, we will develop the geometric theory of systems of partial differential equations of second order for a scalar function as the Contact Geometry of Second Order, following E. Cartan.We will formulate the submanifold theory of second order jet spaces as the geometry of PD manifolds (R;D 1 ,D 2 ) of second order. Moreover we will establish the First Reduction Theorem for (R;D 1,D 2) admitting non-trivial Cauchy characteristic systems. By utilizing Parabolic Geometry, we will give, directly or combined with reduction theorems, several classes of systems of partial differential equations of second order, for which the model equation of each class admits the Lie algebra of infinitesimal contact transformations, which is finite dimensional and simple.KeywordsDifferential SystemParabolic GeometryContact ManifoldContact GeometryCanonical SystemThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.