Differential geometry of $\frak g$-manifolds

Abstract

An action of a Lie algebra $\frak g$ on a manifold $M$ is just a Lie algebra homomorphism $ζ:\frak g\to \frak X(M)$. We define orbits for such an action. In general the space of orbits $M/\frak g$ is not a manifold and even has a bad topology. Nevertheless for a $\frak g$-manifold with equidimensional orbits we treat such notions as connection, curvature, covariant differentiation, Bianchi identity, parallel transport, basic differential forms, basic cohomology, and characteristic classes, which generalize the corresponding notions for principal $G$-bundles. As one of the applications, we derive a sufficient condition for the projection $M\to M/\frak g$ to be a bundle associated to a principal bundle.