Lie Pseudogroups \`a la Cartan

Abstract

We present a modern formulation of \'Elie Cartan's structure theory for Lie pseudogroups and prove a reduction theorem that clarifies the role of Cartan's systatic system. The paper is divided into three parts. In part one, using notions coming from the theory of Lie groupoids and algebroids, we introduce the framework of Cartan algebroids and realizations, structures that encode Cartan's structure equations and notion of a pseudogroup in normal form. In part two, we present a novel proof of Cartan's Second Fundamental Theorem, which states that any Lie pseudogroup is equivalent to a pseudogroup in normal form. In part three, we prove a new reduction theorem that states that, under suitable regularity conditions, a pseudogroup in normal form canonically reduces to a generalized pseudogroup of local solutions of a Lie-Pfaffian groupoid.