Second-order infinitesimal groups and affine connections

Abstract: This paper presents new research in infinitesimal algebra by introducing the concept of an infinitesimal group and exploring its properties and ramifications. The author investigates first- and second-order subgroups of Lie groups and demonstrates the use of the second-order infinitesimal group structure to define a Lie bracket of points intrinsic to the Lie group. This construction allows for the derivation of a second-order Baker-Campbell-Hausdorff formula for the infinitesimal group operation and provides a means to reconstruct the Lie bracket of the Lie algebra of a Lie group. The author also characterises all second-order infinitesimal group structures on KL vector spaces as deformations of vector addition by bilinear maps. The main contribution of the paper is the generalisation of the previously established correspondence between symmetric affine connections and second-order infinitesimally affine structures to manifolds with non-symmetric affine connections via second-order infinitesimal groups.