Manifolds obtained by soldering together points, lines, etc.

Frédéric Hélein (1)

1 IMJ - Institut de Mathématiques de Jussieu

This text is the extended version of a talk given at the conference Geometry, Topology, QFT and Cosmology hold from May 28 to May 30, 2008 at the Observatoire de Paris. We explore the notion of solder (or soldering form) in differential geometry and propose an alternative interpretation of it, motivated by the search of an accurate mathematical description of the General Relativity. This new interpretation leads naturally to imagine a rich family of new geometries which has not yet a satisfactory definition in general. We try however to communicate to the reader an intuition of such geometries through some examples and review quickly some possible applications in physics. The basic objects in this geometry are not points (i.e. 0-dimensional), but (p-1)-dimensional.

Mots clés: Riemannian manifold; vector bundle; solder form

Domaines: Physique mathématique [math-ph]

Frédéric Hélein. Manifolds obtained by soldering together points, lines, etc.. Geometry, Topology, QFT and Cosmology, May 2008, Paris, France. pp.23-43. ⟨hal-00379942⟩