arXiv research

An Engel structure is a maximally non-integrable field of two-planes tangent to a four-manifold. Any two such structures are locally diffeomorphic. We investigate the space of global deformations of canonical Engel structures arising out of contact three-manifolds. The main tool is Cartan's method of prolongation and d…

The study classifies prolongations up to Engel homotopy based on their formal data.

Paper studies Engel structures and automorphisms on 4-manifolds.

Engel knots map to formal knots without restrictions.

Engel structures on complex surfaces are classified based on Chern classes.

Modified Engel structures allow complete h-principle for overtwisted discs.

Study of Lagrangian Engel structures on symplectic 4-manifolds.

We develop a construction of Engel stuctures on 4-manifolds based on decompositions of manifolds into round handles. This allows us to show that all parallelizable 4-manifolds admit an Engel structure. We also show that, given two Engel manifolds M_1,M_2 satisfying a certain condition on the characteristic foliation, t…

The study examines the stability of Engel-like structures in higher dimensions.

Study complex Engel structures on complex surfaces, classifying homogeneous examples.

The paper explores geometric properties of Engel structures on 4-manifolds.

We call two Engel structures isotopic if they are homotopic through Engel structures by a homotopy that fixes the characteristic line field. In the present paper we define an isotopy invariant of Engel structures on oriented circle bundles over closed oriented three-manifolds and apply it to give an isotopy classificat…

Researchers create non-isomorphic holomorphic Engel structures on C4.

The article classifies Engel structures up to homotopy.

Study of marked contact Engel structures with geometric invariants.

Study uses superalgebra homology to classify 4D Engel-like Lie algebras.

Expanding knowledge of Engel structures via geometric constructions and dynamics analysis.

Engel manifolds show transverse tori can be made to have various formal invariants.

Study finds non-isotopic transverse tori in Engel manifolds.

There is a remarkable type of field of two-planes special to four dimensions known as an Engel distributions. They are the only stable regular distributions besides the contact, quasi-contact and line fields. If an arbitrary two-plane field on a four-manifold is slightly perturbed then it will be Engel at generic point…

Engel structures on bundles over 3-manifolds in complex 3-space.

We describe a complete system of invariants for 4-dimensional CR manifolds of CR dimension 1 and codimension 2 with Engel CR distribution by constructing an explicit canonical Cartan connection. We also investigate the relation between the Cartan connection and the normal form of the defining equation of an embedded En…

We provide the first known family of examples of integrable homogeneous sub-Riemannian structures admitting strictly abnormal geodesics. These examples were obtained through the analysis of the equivalence problem for sub-Riemannian Engel structures. We formulate a criterion of strict abnormality in terms of structure …

We study pairs of Engel structures on four-manifolds whose intersection has constant rank one and which define the same even contact structure, but induce different orientations on it. We establish a correspondence between such pairs of Engel structures and a class of weakly hyperbolic flows. This correspondence is ana…

Modeling curvature-sensitive cells in visual cortex using manifold geometry.

New 4D shapes can't be opened like books.

We give two applications of the 2-Engel relation, classically studied in finite and Lie groups, to the 4-dimensional topological surgery conjecture. The A-B slice problem, a reformulation of the surgery conjecture for free groups, is shown to admit a homotopy solution. We also exhibit a new collection of universal surg…

Classifies metric lines in Engel-type groups, a step towards solving sub-Riemannian manifold problems.

A simple proof is given of the following result first observed by J. Adachi: embedded circles tangent to the standard Engel structure on Euclidean 4-space are classified, up to isotopy via such embeddings, by their rotation number.

Researchers found optimal paths on a specific geometric group.

We apply spectral sequences to derive both an obstruction to the existence of $n$-fold prolongations and a topological classification. Prolongations have been used in the literature in an attempt to prove that every Engel structure on $M\times\mathbb{S}^1$ with characteristic line field tangent to the fibers is determi…

The paper extends local h-principles to complex structures on Stein manifolds.

Study null geodesics on specific spacetimes, finding contact manifolds and Engel geometry applications.

We find all intrinsic measures of $C^{1,1}$ smooth submanifolds in the Engel group, showing that they are equivalent to the corresponding $d$-dimensional spherical Hausdorff measure restricted to the submanifold. The integer $d$ is the degree of the submanifold. These results follow from a different approach to negligi…

We construct normal forms for Lorentzian metrics on Engel distributions under the assumption that abnormal curves are timelike future directed Hamiltonian geodesics. Then we indicate some cases in which the abnormal timelike future directed curve initiating at the origin is geometrically optimal. We also give certain e…

Modeling curvature-sensitive cells in visual cortex with geometric structures.

Alternative construction of Rumin complex on Lie groups.

New surgery problems solved for 4D topological surgery.

Engel structures on M x S^1 and M x I are studied in this paper, where M is a 3-dimensional manifold. We suppose that these structures have characteristic line fields parallel to the fibres, S^1 or I. It is proved that they are characterized by contact structures on the cross section M, the twisting numbers, and Legend…

We realise the first and second Grushin distributions as symmetry reductions of the 3-dimensional Heisenberg distribution and 4-dimensional Engel distribution respectively. Similarly, we realise the Martinet distribution as an alternative symmetry reduction of the Engel distribution. These reductions allow us to derive…

We study the equivalence problem for $4$-dimensional CR-manifolds of CR-dimension $1$ and codimension $2$ which are referred to as Engel CR-manifolds. We construct a canonical Cartan connection on such CR-manifolds through Cartan equivalence's method. In particular, we give the explicit expression of $4$ biholomorphic …

This paper characterizes semigenerated Carnot groups and applies it to rectifiability of perimeter sets.

The Engel group's sub-Riemannian structure is analyzed, revealing unique geometric features.

In Carnot groups, directional pliability allows curve extensions and approximations.

The left-invariant sub-Riemannian problem on the Engel group is considered. The problem gives the nilpotent approximation to generic nonholonomic systems in four-dimensional space with two-dimensional control, for instance to a system which describes motion of mobile robot with a trailer. The global optimality of extre…

Notes on sub-Riemannian geometry equivalence problem.

The notion of curvature discussed in this paper is a far going generalization of the Riemannian sectional curvature. It was first introduced by Agrachev, Barilari and Rizzi in arXiv:1306.5318, and it is defined for a wide class of optimal control problems: a unified framework including geometric structures such as Riem…

Let E be the Engel group and D be a rank 2 bracket generating left invariant distribution with a Lorentzian metric, which is a nondegenerate metric of index 1. In this paper, we first prove that timelike normal extremals are locally maximizing. Second, we obtain a parametrization of timelike, spacelike, lightlike norma…