In this paper a Weil approach to quasijets is discussed. For given manifolds $M$ and $N$, a quasijet with source $x\in M$ and target $y\in N$ is a mapping $T_x^{r}M\to T_y^{r}N$ which is a vector homomorphism for each one of the $r$ vector bundle structures of the iterated tangent bundle $T^r$ [A. Dekrét, Casopis Pest. Mat. 111, No. 4, 345-352 (1986; Zbl 0611.58004)]. Let us denote by $Q{J}^r(M,N)$ the bundle of quasijets from $M$ to $N$; the space ${\tilde{J}}^r(M,N)$ of non-holonomic $r$-jets from $M$ to $N$ is embeded into $Q{J}^r(M,N)$. On the other hand, the bundle $Q{T}_m^{r}N$ of $(m,r)$-quasivelocities...

Let $G_{n,k}$ (${\tilde{G}}_{n,k}$) denote the Grassmann manifold of linear $k$-spaces (resp. oriented $k$-spaces) in ${ℝ}^n$, $d_{n,k}=k(n-k)=\text{dim}{G}_{n,k}$ and suppose $n\ge 2k$. As an easy consequence of the Steenrod obstruction theory, one sees that $(d_{n,k}+1)$-fold Whitney sum $(d_{n,k}+1){\xi }_{n,k}$ of the nontrivial line bundle ${\xi }_{n,k}$ over $G_{n,k}$ always has a nowhere vanishing section. The author deals with the following question: What is the least $s$ ($=s_{n,k}$) such that the vector bundle $s{\xi }_{n,k}$ admits a nowhere vanishing section ? Obviously, $s_{n,k}\le d_{n,k}+1$, and for the special case in which $k=1$, it is known that $s_{n,1}=d_{n,1}+1$. Using results...

This paper has two parts. Part one is mainly intended as a general introduction to the problem of sectioning vector bundles (in particular tangent bundles of smooth manifolds) by everywhere linearly independent sections, giving a survey of some ideas, methods and results.Part two then records some recent progress in sectioning tangent bundles of several families of specific manifolds.