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Contact geometry

Noun

Definitions

1.NounGiven a smooth manifold of odd dimensionality, a distribution (subset) of the tangent bundle that satisfies the condition of complete nonintegrability, or equivalently may be locally defined as the kernel of a maximally nondegenerate differential 1-form; the study of such structures.
"The defining conditions for a contact geometry are opposite to two equivalent conditions for complete integrability of a hyperplane distribution: i.e. that it be tangent to a codimension 1 foliation on the manifold, whose equivalence is the content of the Frobenius theorem.; The contact geometry is in many ways an odd-dimensional counterpart of the symplectic geometry, a structure on certain even-dimensional manifolds. The concepts of contact geometry and symplectic geometry are both motivated by the mathematical formalism of classical mechanics, where one can consider either the even-dimensional phase space of a mechanical system or the constant-energy hypersurface, which, being of codimension 1, has odd dimension."
2.NounUsed other than figuratively or idiomatically: see contact,‎ geometry.
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