Projective invariants of linear 3-webs and Gronwall's Conjecture

Abstract

We present a projectively invariant description of planar linear 3-webs. For a non-hexagonal 3-web, we introduce family of projective torsion-free Cartan connections, the web leaves being geodesics for each member of the family, and give a web linearization criterion. Finally, we propose an algorithm for resolving the Gronwall conjecture and illustrate this approach by proving the conjecture for 3-webs whose 2 foliations are 2 pencils of lines.