Involutive distributions and dynamical systems of second-order type

Abstract

We investigate the existence of coordinate transformations which bring a given vector field on a manifold equipped with an involutive distribution into the form of a second-order differential equation field with parameters. We define associated connections and we give a coordinate-independent criterion for determining whether the vector field is of quadratic type. Further, we investigate the underlying global bundle structure of the manifold under consideration, induced by the vector field and the involutive distribution.