Homogeneity actions, N-manifolds, and the Frobenius theorem

Abstract

This paper is devoted to $\mathbb{N}$-graded supermanifolds $\mathcal{M}$ whose grading is induced by a homogeneity action, i.e., a smooth action $\mathbb{R}\ni t\mapsto h_t$ of the multiplicative monoid of real numbers on $\mathcal{M}$. We show that the map $h_0$ is a smooth retraction onto a submanifold $M=h_0(\mathcal{M})$, and that $h_0:\mathcal{M}\to M$ is a fiber bundle with typical fiber $\mathbb{R}^{m|n}$. Using this homogeneity approach, we obtain a simple proof of a homogeneous version of the Frobenius theorem. If, in addition, $h_{-1}$ acts as the parity operator on $\mathcal{M}$, we provide a geometric characterization equivalent to the recent definition of $\mathbb{N}$-manifolds due to Bursztyn, Cueca, and Mehta in terms of sheaves of graded algebras with prescribed local models. As a consequence, the homogeneous Frobenius theorem for $\mathbb{N}$-manifolds proved by these authors appears as a special case of our more general result.