Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2003/iii/paper-16/2/a/solution
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2003 iii Paper 16 2 a Solution by
Codex 0 Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Consider the subsetIt is nonempty by the given initial data. A local isometry preserves the Levi-Civita connection and therefore affinely parametrized geodesics. On a sufficiently small normal neighborhood of , this givesThe right sides agree, so on that neighborhood and their differentials agree there as well. Consequently is open.
It is also closed. If converges to , continuity first gives . Choose coordinate charts around and this common image. The coordinate matrices of the two differentials depend continuously on the base point; their equalities at therefore pass to . Thus . Since is connected, the nonempty subset that is both open and closed equals . Hence everywhere. This proves local isometries are determined by first-order data without requiring completeness.
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