THE HOLONOMY GROUP AND THE DIFFERENTIAL GEOMETRY OF FIBRED RIEMANNIAN SPACES

The holonomy group arising from a linear connection and differential homotopy is a classical subject in geometry. The notion was generalized first by Y. Muto ({10}) by considering horizontal subspaces in a fibred space which by construction is a differential manifold over a base space with another manifold as the fibre. He called this generalized group the restricted holonomy group Hl('o)((')M). Unlike the case of frame bundles the horizontal subspaces in a fibred space do not in general obey the right invariant rule. Hence it is not hard to imagine that Hl('o)((')M) is larger than linear holonomy groups. It may not even form a Lie group and for years the structure of this group was left unknown simply because the number of elements concerned is too large to handle.;As far as I know, the work in this thesis is original, except where the text indicates the contrary: In particular, Chapter One is purely expository.;One of the intentions here is to clarify and determine the structure of Hl('o)((')M) by setting certain conditions. Then by use of Palais' theorem about transformation groups, Nijenhuis' method for dealing with linear holonomy groups, and the standard technique of computing line integrals, the structure of Hl('o)((')M) is determined in Chapter One under certain conditions. Some properties concerning the isometric immersion from one fibred Riemannian space into another are also discussed in Chapter Two.