Carrollian Lie algebroids: taming singular Carrollian geometries

Abstract Developments in Carrollian gravity and holography necessitate the use of singular Carroll vector fields, a feature that cannot be accommodated within standard Carrollian geometry. We introduce Carrollian Lie algebroids as a framework to study such singular Carrollian geometries. In this approach, we define the Carroll distribution as the image of the kernel of the degenerate metric under the anchor map, i.e. the map from the Lie algebroid to the tangent bundle of the manifold. The Carroll distribution is, in general, a singular Stefan–Sussmann distribution that will fluctuate between rank-1 and rank-0, and so captures the notion of a singular Carroll vector field. As an example, we show that an invariant Carrollian structure on a principal bundle leads to a Carrollian structure on the associated Atiyah algebroid that will, in general, have a singular Carroll distribution. Mixed null-spacelike hypersurfaces, under some simplifying assumptions, also lead to examples of Carrollian Lie algebroids. Furthermore, we establish the existence of compatible connections on Carrollian Lie algebroids, and as a direct consequence, we conclude that Carrollian manifolds can always be equipped with compatible affine connections.