Characterization of Isoclinic, Transversally Geodesic and Grassmannizable Webs

Abstract

One of the most relevant topics in web theory is linearization. A particular class of linearizable webs is the Grassmannizable web. Akivis gave a characterization of such a web, showing that Grassmannizable webs are equivalent to isoclinic and transversally geodesic webs. The obstructions given by Akivis that characterize isoclinic and transversally geodesic webs are computed locally, and it is difficult to give them an interpretation in relation to torsion or curvature of the unique Chern connection associated with a web. In this paper, using Nagy’s web formalism, Frölisher—Nejenhuis theory for derivation associated with vector differential forms, and Grifone’s connection theory for tensorial algebra on the tangent bundle, we find invariants associated with almost-Grassmann structures expressed in terms of torsion, curvature, and Nagy’s tensors, and we provide an interpretation in terms of these invariants for the isoclinic, transversally geodesic, Grassmannizable, and parallelizable webs.