Prolongation on contact manifolds

Abstract

On contact manifolds we describe a notion of (contact) finite-type for linear partial differential operators satisfying a natural condition on their leading terms. A large class of linear differential operators are of finite-type in this sense but are not well understood by currently available techniques. We resolve this in the following sense. For any such D we construct a partial connection r H on a (finite rank) vector bundle with the property that sections in the null space of D correspond bijectively, and via an explicit map, with sections parallel for the partial connection. It follows that the solution space of D is finite dimensional and bounded by the corank of the holonomy algebra of r H. The treatment is via a uniform procedure, even though in most cases no normal Cartan connection is available. The prolongations of a k th order linear differential operator between vector bundles arise by differentiating the given operator D : E ! F, and forming a new system comprising D along with auxiliary operators that capture some of this derived data. To exploit this effectively it is crucial to determine what part of this information should be retained, and then how best to manage it. With this understood, for many classes of operators the resulting prolonged operator can expose key properties of the original differential operator and its equation. Motivated by questions related to integrability and deformations of structure, a theory of overdetermined equations and prolonged systems was developed during the 1950s and 1960s by Goldschmidt, Spencer, and others (2, 17). Generally, results in these works are derived abstractly using jet bundle theory, and are severely restricted in the sense that they apply most readily to differential operators satisfying involutivity conditions. These features mean the theory can be difficult to apply. In the case that the given partial differential operator D : E ! F, has surjective symbol there is an effective algorithmic approach to this problem. The prolongations are constructed from the leading symbol �(D) : J k � 1 E ! F, where J k � 1 is the bundle of symmetric covariant tensors on M of rank k. At a point of M, denoting by K the kernel of �(D), the spaces K ` = ( J ` � 1 K) ( J k+` � 1 E), `� 0, capture spaces of new variables to be introduced, and the system closes up if K ` = 0 for