Generalized contact bundles

Abstract

In this Note, we propose a line bundle approach to odd-dimensional analogues of generalized complex structures. This new approach has three main advantages: (1) it encompasses all existing ones; (2) it elucidates the geometric meaning of the integrability condition for generalized contact structures; (3) in light of new results on multiplicative forms and Spencer operators [8], it allows a simple interpretation of the defining equations of a generalized contact structure in terms of Lie algebroids and Lie groupoids.