Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2007/iii/paper-15/5/b/solution

Use the sign convention in the supplied scalar Laplace-Beltrami operator identity, and let be the metric-dual vector field. Integrate that Bochner formula for one-forms over the closed Riemannian manifold, with its volume density . The integral of a scalar Laplacian is zero: on an oriented manifold this is the Riemannian divergence theorem applied to its gradient, and the same density formula is valid without orientability. Hence
Both terms are nonnegative, because . The smooth nonnegative integrand must therefore vanish everywhere: a strictly positive value would remain positive on an open neighborhood of positive volume and make its integral positive. In particular at every point, proving
Thus harmonic one-forms are parallel under nonnegative Ricci curvature. The same argument also gives pointwise. No orientation or connectedness assumption is needed for this step.

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