Lie groupoids and algebroids applied to the study of uniformity and homogeneity of material bodies.

A Lie groupoid, called material Lie groupoid, is associated in a natural way to any elastic material. The corresponding Lie algebroid, called material algebroid, is used to characterize the uniformity and the homogeneity properties of the material. The relation to previous results in terms of G−structures is discussed in detail. An illustrative example is presented as an application of the theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]