Higher order tangent bundles

Abstract

The tangent bundle $T^kM$ of order $k$, of a smooth Banach manifold $M$ consists of all equivalent classes of curves that agree up to their accelerations of order $k$. For a Banach manifold $M$ and a natural number $k$ first we determine a smooth manifold structure on $T^kM$ which also offers a fiber bundle structure for $(\pi_k,T^kM,M)$. Then we introduce a particular lift of linear connections on $M$ to geometrize $T^kM$ as a vector bundle over $M$. More precisely based on this lifted nonlinear connection we prove that $T^kM$ admits a vector bundle structure over $M$ if and only if $M$ is endowed with a linear connection. As a consequence applying this vector bundle structure we lift Riemannian metrics and Lagrangians from $M$ to $T^kM$. Also, using the projective limit techniques, we declare a generalized Fr\'echet vector bundle structure for $T^\infty M$ over $M$.