On the geometry of Grassmannian equivalent connections

Abstract

We introduce the equation of n-dimensional totally geodesic submanifolds of a manifold E as a submanifold of the second order jet space of n-dimensional submanifolds of E. Next we study the geometry of n-Grassmannian equivalent connections, that is linear connections without torsion admitting the same equation of n-dimensional totally geodesic submanifolds. We define the n-Grassmannian structure as the equivalence class of such connections, recovering for n=1 the case of theory of projectively equivalent connections. By introducing the equation of parametrized n-dimensional totally geodesic submanifolds as a submanifold of the second order jet space of the trivial bundle on the space of parameters, we discover a relation of covering between the `parametrized' equation and the `unparametrized' one. After having studied symmetries of these equations, we discuss the case in which the space of parameters is equal to R^n.