Geometric structures arising from the deformation of groups of Heisenberg type

Abstract

Motivated by the desire of finding a geometric interpretation to the Yamabe equation on groups of Heisenberg type, we define a geometric structure on manifolds modelled locally on these groups, which we call contact structure of Heisenberg type. In the case of the Heisenberg group is equivalent to contact Riemannian manifolds. We define a natural connection on these structures, we compute the formula for the conformal change of scalar curvature, and introduce the Yamabe problem for these manifods.