Cones and Cartan geometry

Abstract

We show that the extended principal bundle of a Cartan geometry of type (A(m,R),GL(m,R)), endowed with its extended connection ωˆ, is isomorphic to the principal A(m,R)-bundle of affine frames endowed with the affine connection as defined in classical Kobayashi-Nomizu volume I. Then we classify the local holonomy groups of the Cartan geometry canonically associated to a Riemannian manifold. It follows that if the holonomy group of the Cartan geometry canonically associated to a Riemannian manifold is compact then the Riemannian manifold is locally a product of cones.