contact geometry

Noun

contact geometry (countable and uncountable, plural contact geometries)

1. (countable, differential geometry) Given a smooth manifold of odd dimensionality, a distribution (subset) of the tangent bundle that satisfies the condition of complete nonintegrability, or equivalently may be locally defined as the kernel of a maximally nondegenerate differential 1-form;
   • The defining conditions for a contact geometry are opposite to two equivalent conditions for complete integrability of a hyperplane distribution: i.e. that it be tangent to a codimension 1 foliation on the manifold, whose equivalence is the content of the Frobenius theorem.
   • The contact geometry is in many ways an odd-dimensional counterpart of the symplectic geometry, a structure on certain even-dimensional manifolds. The concepts of contact geometry and symplectic geometry are both motivated by the mathematical formalism of classical mechanics, where one can consider...
2. (uncountable, differential geometry) the study of such structures.
3. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see contact, geometry.
   • 1998 [Kluwer Academic], L.-S. Fan, et al., Chapter 4: Sorbent Transfer and Dispersion, Barbara Toole-O'Neil (editor), Dry Scrubbing Technologies for Flue Gas Desulfurization, 1998, Springer, page 263,
     Surfaces of even the large hydrate particles have rounded protrusions and are best represented by...
   • Along the trajectories dissipated power is calculated and projected onto the surface grid by a method using geometrical data on the contact geometry.2003, Kurt Frischmuth, Dirk, Langemann, Distributed Numerical Calculations of Wear in the Rail-Wheel Contact, Karl Popp, Werner Schliehlen (editors), System Dynamics and Long-Term Behaviour of...