%0 Journal Article %T Symmetries which preserve the characteristic vector field of K-contact manifolds %J - %D 1993 %R DOI Code: 10.1285/i15900932v13n2p229 %X As is well-known locally symmetric K-contact manifolds are spaces of constant curvature ([13]).This means that having isometric local geodesic symmetries is a very strong restriction for K-contact manifolds.Thus other classes of isometries shall fit for contact geometry. For example, T. Takahashi [15] has introduced the notion of -geodesic symmetries on Sasaki manifolds and also on K-contact manifolds. Since then, manifolds with such isometries have been studied extensively.In this paper we generalize the notion of -geodesic symmetries. Because we notice that our diffeomorphisms preserve the characteristic vector field of K-contact manifolds, we call them symmetries which preserve the characteristic vector-field, or -preserving symmetries.Our idea for a construction of such local diffeomorphisms on K-contact manifolds is the lifting of symmetries on almost K£¿hler manifolds through the local fibering of K-contact manifolds.After recalling elementary facts on contact geometry in Section 1, we devote Section 2 to our definition of symmetries which preserve the characteristic vector field.Also we construct such a family of symmetries, which is an example of local S-rotations around curves in the sense of L. Nicolodi and L. Vanhecke [11].In Section 3 we give some examples of our symmetries %U http://siba-ese.unisalento.it/index.php/notemat/article/view/1040