Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2009/ii/paper-4/24h/c/solution
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2009 ii Paper 4 24H c Solution by
Codex 0 Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
An isometry preserves the Levi-Civita connection. To justify this, transport the connection on by . It is torsion-free and preserves the metric on , since preserves the metric and Lie brackets. These two properties characterize the Levi-Civita connection uniquely: if two such connections differ by , the tensor is symmetric in its first two arguments and antisymmetric in its last two. Cycling these symmetries yields , hence . ThereforeApplying this along shows that the covariant acceleration of is zero, so an isometry carries affinely parametrized geodesics to geodesics.
The same identity and the definition show that intertwines the Riemann curvature tensor. If is an orthonormal tangent basis, its image is orthonormal and
Both proposed converses are false. Take with the Euclidean metric and . A geodesic maps to the geodesic , and both Gaussian curvatures vanish identically. Nevertheless multiplies lengths by two, so is not an isometry. This one counterexample answers both unheaded continuation requests.
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