lin-0086

6.4 Why the tangent functor does not supply a Lie bracket

The tangent functor provides tangent objects and their structural maps. It does not, in every tangent category, choose a Lie bracket for arbitrary families of fields. We therefore make the needed enrichment explicit.

Definition 6.5 Bracket-admissible semantics

A tangent semantic category is bracket-admissible for a class of instances when it carries a bracket operation on the registered vector fields, and when related fields have related brackets. Concretely, if \(V_s,V_t\) and \(W_s,W_t\) are related by \(I(f)\), then \([V_s,W_s]\) and \([V_t,W_t]\) are also related by \(I(f)\).

Smooth manifolds satisfy this familiar related-fields property. Abstract tangent categories require appropriate additional hypotheses or an involution/Lie-algebroid enrichment [ Burke and MacAdam , 2019 ] . The qualification matters: the bracket is an extra operation with laws, not an automatic synonym for tangency.

Proposition 6.6 Pointwise bracket on database fields

In bracket-admissible semantics, the componentwise family

\[ [V,W]_s=[V_s,W_s] \]

is a natural vector field on \(I\).

Proof

The registered fields \(V\) and \(W\) are natural, so their components are \(I(f)\)-related for every schema arrow. Bracket admissibility makes their componentwise brackets \(I(f)\)-related. This is exactly the naturality square for \([V,W]\); the section equation follows from the bracket construction on vector fields.

Now choose a visible differential subbundle or distribution

\[ j:\mathcal D_{\mathrm{vis}}\hookrightarrow T_{\mathcal S}I \]

generated by the registered intervention fields. A Lie bracket is an operation on sections, not a fiberwise bilinear map on tangent vectors. Assume therefore that the semantics supplies an object or sheaf of sections \(\Gamma (\mathcal D_{\mathrm{vis}})\) and an object of database vector fields \(\mathfrak X(I)\). The inclusion induces \(\Gamma (j):\Gamma (\mathcal D_{\mathrm{vis}})\to \mathfrak X(I)\), and the bracket of included sections defines

\[ \beta : \Gamma (\mathcal D_{\mathrm{vis}}) \times \Gamma (\mathcal D_{\mathrm{vis}}) \longrightarrow \mathfrak X(I). \]

Closure asks whether this operation factors through the visible section object:

Commutative diagram illustrating 6.4 Why the tangent functor does not supply a Lie bracket.
Definition 6.7 Bracket database obstruction

The bracket obstruction \(\mathcal O_{\mathrm{br}}(I,\mathcal D_{\mathrm{vis}})\) is the failure of \(\beta \) to factor through \(\Gamma (j)\). If a normal quotient \(q:\mathfrak X(I)\to \mathcal N\) of section objects is declared, it is observed by

\[ \mathcal O_{\mathrm{br}}=q\circ \beta . \]

In Riemannian semantics this specializes to the projected normal bracket residual of Chapter 5.

This definition retains the non-scalar character of non-closure. A norm of \(q\beta \) is one observer. The obstruction itself still records the context, field pair, normal type, and route by which closure failed.