Lie groupoids and algebroids applied to the study of uniformity and homogeneity of Cosserat media

Abstract

A Lie groupoid, called \textit{second-order non-holonomic material Lie groupoid}, is associated in a natural way to any Cosserat media. This groupoid is used to give a new definition of homogeneity which does not depend on a reference crystal. The corresponding Lie algebroid, called \textit{second-order non-holonomic material Lie algebroid}, is used to characterize the homogeneity property of the material. We also relate these results with the previously ones in terms of non-holonomic second-order $\overline{G}$-structures.