Conformal Differential Geometry and Its Generalizations

Conformal differential geometry, a part of classical differential geometry, was founded at the turn of the century and gave rise to the study of conformal and almost Grassmann structures in later years. Until now, no book has offered a systematic presentation of the multidimensional conformal differential geometry and the conformal and almost Grassmann structures. After years of intense research at their respective universities and at the Soviet School of Differential Geometry, Maks A. Akivis and Vladislav V. Goldberg have written this well-conceived, expertly executed volume to fill a void in the literature. Dr. Akivis and Dr. Goldberg supply a deep foundation, applications, numerous examples, and recent developments in the field. Many of the findings that fill these pages are published here for the first time, and previously published results are reexamined in a unified context. The geometry and theory of conformal and pseudoconformal spaces of arbitrary dimension, as well as the theory of Grassmann and almost Grassmann structures, are discussed and analyzed in detail. The topics covered not only advance the subject itself, but pose important questions for future investigations. This exhaustive, groundbreaking text combines the classical results and recent developments and findings. This volume is intended for graduate students and researchers of differential geometry. It can be especially useful to those students and researchers who are interested in conformal and Grassmann differential geometry and their applications to theoretical physics.