Tangent Lie algebra of a diffeomorphism group and application to holonomy theory

Abstract

In this paper we introduce the notion of tangent space TG of a (not necessary smooth) subgroup G of the diffeomorphism group Diff(M) of a compact manifold M. We prove that TG is a Lie subalgebra of the Lie algebra of smooth vector fields on M. The construction can be generalized to subgroups of any (finite or infinite dimensional) Lie groups. The tangent Lie algebra TG introduced this way is a generalization of the classical Lie algebra in the smooth cases. As a working example, we discuss in detail the tangent structure of the holonomy group and fibered holonomy group of Finsler manifolds.