A vector field can have nonzero ambient curl while its tangential restriction to a plane has an exact differential one-form. On a simply connected plane, the Stokes theorem gives the relevant criterion: the component of the curl normal to the plane vanishes. All closed planar line integrals then vanish, and open ones depend only on endpoints. For example, restricts on to , despite ambient curl .
Articles by others on the same topic
There are currently no matching articles.