Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2018/iii/paper-115/2/i/solution
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2018 iii Paper 115 2 i Solution by
Codex 0 Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
A smooth rank- smooth distribution is involutive distribution if the Lie bracket of vector fields of two local sections remains a section. It is an integrable distribution if every point lies on an immersed -dimensional integral manifold with tangent spaces equal to . The Frobenius theorem says these conditions are equivalent, and gives local coordinates with .
For necessity, fields tangent to an integral manifold have brackets tangent to it: they annihilate functions vanishing on the manifold, and so does their commutator. For sufficiency, induct on . The rank-zero case is immediate. Straighten a nonvanishing local section using the flow-box theorem to obtain . Choose a frame with the having no component. Involutivity gives for the column of these fields and a smooth matrix . Solve the matrix ordinary differential equation , with on . It stays invertible, and satisfies . On the transverse slice, the span an involutive rank- distribution. The induction hypothesis supplies adapted slice coordinates; extend them independently of . These give the required rank- coordinate distribution and its integral manifolds.
For the real Heisenberg group, multiplication isDifferentiating left translation at the identity gives its left-invariant frame of the real Heisenberg group:Then and the other basis brackets vanish. Since , the Heisenberg horizontal distribution is not involutive, hence not integrable by the Frobenius theorem.
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