Leibniz Cohomology and the Calculus of Variations

Abstract

In this paper we continue the investigation of Loday's Leibniz cohomology as a new invariant for differentiable manifolds. In particular the Leibniz coboundary of a k-tensor (in the sense of differential geometry) is computed in a local coordinate chart and then interpreted in terms of the calculus of variations. For example, the Leibniz coboundary of the metric two-tensor reduces to the first variation of arc length.