Definition
If M is a manifold and P is a connection on M, that is a vector-valued 1-form on M which is a projection on TM such that PabPbc = Pac, then the cocurvature is a vector-valued 2-form on M defined by
where X and Y are vector fields on M.
In mathematics in the branch of differential geometry, the cocurvature of a connection on a manifold is the obstruction to the integrability of the vertical bundle.
If M is a manifold and P is a connection on M, that is a vector-valued 1-form on M which is a projection on TM such that PabPbc = Pac, then the cocurvature is a vector-valued 2-form on M defined by
where X and Y are vector fields on M.
In the mathematical field of differential geometry, the Riemann curvature tensor or Riemann–Christoffel tensor is the most common way used to express the curvature of Riemannian manifolds. It assigns a tensor to each point of a Riemannian manifold. It is a local invariant of Riemannian metrics which measures the failure of the second covariant derivatives to commute. A Riemannian manifold has zero curvature if and only if it is flat, i.e. locally isometric to the Euclidean space. The curvature tensor can also be defined for any pseudo-Riemannian manifold, or indeed any manifold equipped with an affine connection.
In Riemannian or pseudo-Riemannian geometry, the Levi-Civita connection is the unique affine connection on the tangent bundle of a manifold that preserves the (pseudo-)Riemannian metric and is torsion-free.
In geometry, parallel transport is a way of transporting geometrical data along smooth curves in a manifold. If the manifold is equipped with an affine connection, then this connection allows one to transport vectors of the manifold along curves so that they stay parallel with respect to the connection.
In differential geometry, a pseudo-Riemannian manifold, also called a semi-Riemannian manifold, is a differentiable manifold with a metric tensor that is everywhere nondegenerate. This is a generalization of a Riemannian manifold in which the requirement of positive-definiteness is relaxed.
In differential geometry, the Lie derivative, named after Sophus Lie by Władysław Ślebodziński, evaluates the change of a tensor field, along the flow defined by another vector field. This change is coordinate invariant and therefore the Lie derivative is defined on any differentiable manifold.
In the mathematical field of differential geometry, a Cartan connection is a flexible generalization of the notion of an affine connection. It may also be regarded as a specialization of the general concept of a principal connection, in which the geometry of the principal bundle is tied to the geometry of the base manifold using a solder form. Cartan connections describe the geometry of manifolds modelled on homogeneous spaces.
In differential geometry, the curvature form describes curvature of a connection on a principal bundle. The Riemann curvature tensor in Riemannian geometry can be considered as a special case.
In mathematics, an almost complex manifold is a smooth manifold equipped with a smooth linear complex structure on each tangent space. Every complex manifold is an almost complex manifold, but there are almost complex manifolds that are not complex manifolds. Almost complex structures have important applications in symplectic geometry.
In differential geometry, an affine connection is a geometric object on a smooth manifold which connects nearby tangent spaces, so it permits tangent vector fields to be differentiated as if they were functions on the manifold with values in a fixed vector space. Connections are among the simplest methods of defining differentiation of the sections of vector bundles.
In differential geometry, the second fundamental form is a quadratic form on the tangent plane of a smooth surface in the three-dimensional Euclidean space, usually denoted by . Together with the first fundamental form, it serves to define extrinsic invariants of the surface, its principal curvatures. More generally, such a quadratic form is defined for a smooth immersed submanifold in a Riemannian manifold.
In the mathematical field of differential geometry, the exterior covariant derivative is an extension of the notion of exterior derivative to the setting of a differentiable principal bundle or vector bundle with a connection.
In differential geometry, a field in mathematics, a Poisson manifold is a smooth manifold endowed with a Poisson structure. The notion of Poisson manifold generalises that of symplectic manifold, which in turn generalises the phase space from Hamiltonian mechanics.
In mathematics, the Maurer–Cartan form for a Lie group G is a distinguished differential one-form on G that carries the basic infinitesimal information about the structure of G. It was much used by Élie Cartan as a basic ingredient of his method of moving frames, and bears his name together with that of Ludwig Maurer.
In mathematics, the Frölicher–Nijenhuis bracket is an extension of the Lie bracket of vector fields to vector-valued differential forms on a differentiable manifold.
In differential geometry, the notion of torsion is a manner of characterizing a twist or screw of a moving frame around a curve. The torsion of a curve, as it appears in the Frenet–Serret formulas, for instance, quantifies the twist of a curve about its tangent vector as the curve evolves. In the geometry of surfaces, the geodesic torsion describes how a surface twists about a curve on the surface. The companion notion of curvature measures how moving frames "roll" along a curve "without twisting".
In differential geometry, an Ehresmann connection is a version of the notion of a connection, which makes sense on any smooth fiber bundle. In particular, it does not rely on the possible vector bundle structure of the underlying fiber bundle, but nevertheless, linear connections may be viewed as a special case. Another important special case of Ehresmann connections are principal connections on principal bundles, which are required to be equivariant in the principal Lie group action.
In mathematics and theoretical physics, an invariant differential operator is a kind of mathematical map from some objects to an object of similar type. These objects are typically functions on , functions on a manifold, vector valued functions, vector fields, or, more generally, sections of a vector bundle.
In the mathematical field of differential topology, the Lie bracket of vector fields, also known as the Jacobi–Lie bracket or the commutator of vector fields, is an operator that assigns to any two vector fields X and Y on a smooth manifold M a third vector field denoted [X, Y].
In mathematics, the Riemannian connection on a surface or Riemannian 2-manifold refers to several intrinsic geometric structures discovered by Tullio Levi-Civita, Élie Cartan and Hermann Weyl in the early part of the twentieth century: parallel transport, covariant derivative and connection form. These concepts were put in their current form with principal bundles only in the 1950s. The classical nineteenth century approach to the differential geometry of surfaces, due in large part to Carl Friedrich Gauss, has been reworked in this modern framework, which provides the natural setting for the classical theory of the moving frame as well as the Riemannian geometry of higher-dimensional Riemannian manifolds. This account is intended as an introduction to the theory of connections.
In differential geometry, a fibered manifold is surjective submersion of smooth manifolds Y → X. Locally trivial fibered manifolds are fiber bundles. Therefore, a notion of connection on fibered manifolds provides a general framework of a connection on fiber bundles.
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