Geometry of big-tangent manifolds

Abstract

Motivated by generalized geometry, we discuss differential geometric structures on the total space $\mathfrak{T}M$ of the bundle $TM\oplus T^*M$, where $M$ is a differentiable manifold; $\mathfrak{T}M$ is called a big-tangent manifold. The vertical leaves of the bundle are para-Hermitian vector spaces. The big-tangent manifolds are endowed with canonical presymplectic, Poisson and 2-nilpotent structures. We discuss lifting processes from $M$ to $\mathfrak{T}M$. From the point of view of the theory of $G$-structures, the structure of a big-tangent manifold is equivalent with a suitable triple $(P,Q,S)$, where $P$ is a regular bivector field, $Q$ is a 2-contravariant symmetric tensor field of the same rank as $P$ and $S$ is a 2-nilpotent $(1,1)$-tensor field. The integrability conditions include the annulation of the Schouten-Nijenhuis bracket $[P,P]$, the annulation of the Nijenhuis tensor $\mathcal{N}_S$ and conditions that connect between the three tensor fields. We discuss horizontal bundles and associated linear connections with the Bott property. Then, we discuss metrics on the vertical bundle that are compatible with the para-Hermitian metric of the leaves. Together with a horizontal bundle, such metrics may be seen as a generalization of the double fields of string theory with the role of double fields over a manifold. We define a canonical connection and the action functional of such a field.