Isometry Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-03
An isometry between metric spaces preserves every distance. A Riemannian isometry preserves the Riemannian metric and therefore distances, angles, geodesics, and intrinsic curvature.
Riemannian product Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
For Riemannian manifolds and , the product metric on is . Its Levi-Civita connection and curvature split by factors, so its Ricci and scalar curvatures are the corresponding sums.
Arc length Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
The arc length of a piecewise smooth curve on a Riemannian manifold is the integral of its speed:An odometer measures this accumulated travel rather than displacement between the endpoints. In Euclidean space, the Riemannian metric is the ordinary inner product, so the formula becomes .
For a circle of radius traversed through an angle , use , . Its speed is , hence its arc length is . Traversing a full circle twice gives , even though the starting and ending points coincide. The same formula measures the two great circle arcs pictured in geodesic.
The curve parameter controls how fast the journey happens, not its arc length. A regular increasing or decreasing reparametrization preserves the integral by change of variables; reversing direction leaves the speed norm unchanged. Retracing part of a route does add length, because it changes the actual journey.
Riemannian surface Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-24
A Riemannian surface is a two-dimensional smooth manifold equipped with a smoothly varying inner product on each tangent plane.
Riemannian manifold Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
A Riemannian manifold is a pair consisting of a smooth manifold and a Riemannian metric . For each point , the positive-definite inner product on its tangent space tells us the size and angle of possible instantaneous movements. The smooth manifold describes which local coordinates are possible; the Riemannian metric adds a choice of measurement.
For example, the plane can carry or . In the second Riemannian metric, a horizontal displacement costs twice as much length as the same coordinate displacement in the first. The underlying smooth manifold is unchanged. The coordinate transformation identifies the second geometry with an ordinary Euclidean plane, illustrating why coordinate appearance alone does not determine curvature.
A round sphere with its induced metric is another Riemannian manifold. Its tangent spaces each have an ordinary Euclidean inner product, although its global geometry is different from a plane's. This is the useful tension: measurements are Euclidean to first order at a point, while how those measurements fit together produces curvature and global restrictions on geodesics.
Dirichlet eta function Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-24
For , the alternating Dirichlet seriesconverges locally uniformly and defines a holomorphic function. For ,
Logarithmic derivative Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-25
The logarithmic derivative of a differentiable function is wherever . For a nonvanishing holomorphic function, a local holomorphic logarithm differentiates to this expression even when no global logarithm exists. If a meromorphic function has local factorization with , differentiation gives . Its residue is therefore , positive for a zero and negative for a pole; this explains the multiplicity count in the argument principle. For , the Euler product for the Riemann zeta function gives
Nontrivial zero of the Riemann zeta function Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-07
A nontrivial zero of the Riemann zeta function lies in the critical strip . The functional equation of the Riemann zeta function reflects such zeros across the critical line .
Functional equation of the Riemann zeta function Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-07
The completed zeta functionis an entire function satisfying . Thus every nontrivial zero is accompanied by , , and .
Nodal crossing Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
A nodal crossing locally consists of two complex branches meeting transversely and is not a one-dimensional complex manifold at the intersection.
For a plane algebraic curve this crossing is an ordinary double point, with two distinct tangent directions.
Transport of a complex structure Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-24
A homeomorphism to a complex manifold transports its atlas and thereby defines a complex structure on the source.
Punctured Riemann surface Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-24
Removing a closed discrete set from a Riemann surface leaves an open complex one-manifold; if connected, it is again a Riemann surface.
Riemann sphere Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-18
The extra point completes the complex plane into a compact Riemann surface. It is one point shared by every direction of escape: , and all tend to as . A basis of neighbourhoods at isThis is the one-point compactification of the complex plane; convergence to means that the modulus tends to infinity.[ref]
Complex Analysis Lecture Notes by Dan Romik. Complex Analysis Lecture Notes, section 9, item 84, printed p. 33, topological definition
For a concrete picture, use the unit sphereand identify with in its equatorial plane. The north pole represents and the south pole represents . The stereographic projection below gives the identification. This convention fixes the scale: the equator corresponds to .[ref]
Why add this point? The Möbius transformation then exchanges and and becomes a holomorphic map everywhere on the Riemann sphere. Its apparent blow-up at zero disappears when its output is expressed in the reciprocal chart at infinity: . This is a concrete instance of a meromorphic function as a holomorphic map to the Riemann sphere. The additional point makes the complex plane compact, while its second manifold chart lets us do ordinary complex analysis near infinity.
Riemann-Hurwitz formula Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
Let be a nonconstant holomorphic map between compact Riemann surfaces that are connected spaces, without boundary. Write for their genera and for the degree of a holomorphic map. With analytic ramification index at each , the formula isHere is the Euler characteristic. Only finitely many ramification points contribute. The holomorphic map is automatically surjective; the valency theorem gives even at a branch value of a holomorphic map. Constant maps are excluded.[ref]
The useful interpretation is that total ramification of a holomorphic map measures how much the source Euler characteristic falls short of copies of the target. The ramification of a power map of the Riemann sphere spends that entire correction at two points; the double cover of the sphere with four branch values spends it at four points and produces a genus-one surface.
Valency theorem Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
For a nonconstant analytic map between compact connected Riemann surfaces, there is an integer such that for every ,
The degree counts sheets with multiplicity of the associated branched covering.
Complete analytic function Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
A complete analytic function is the collection of all continuations of a germ. Its Riemann surface consists of these germs, with projection to their base points.
Regular covering map Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-03
A covering is regular when its deck group acts transitively on each fibre, equivalently when its fundamental-group subgroup is normal.
Harmonic function on a Riemann surface Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-24
A real-valued function on a Riemann surface is harmonic when its expression in every holomorphic coordinate chart has vanishing planar Laplacian.
Identity theorem on a Riemann surface Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-24
Two holomorphic functions on a connected Riemann surface that agree on a set with an accumulation point agree everywhere. Local charts reduce the proof to isolated zeros of a one-variable holomorphic function.
Uniformization theorem Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-24
Every simply connected Riemann surface is biholomorphic to the Riemann sphere, the complex plane, or the unit disc.
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