On contact tops and integrable tops

Abstract

In this paper, we introduce a geometric structure called top, which is a trivialized bundle of plane pencils over a Riemannian 3-manifold, defined as the set of kernels of a circle of 1-forms (e.g. of contact and integrable forms) with particular properties with respect to the metric. We classify the manifolds which admit tops and we describe the associated metrics.

20 pages