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The local flow of $X$ is the smooth map $\Phi :D\to M$, where $D\subset \mathbb{R}\times M$ is the maximal open domain of initial-point/time pairs, whose curve $t\mapsto \Phi (t,q)={\varphi }_t(q)$ is the maximal integral curve of a vector field through $q$, with ${\varphi }_0(q)=q$. Smooth dependence in the ordinary differential equation theorem gives joint smoothness and openness of $D$. Each time slice is a diffeomorphism between its domain and image, with inverse ${\varphi }_{-t}$.

Here is the group law, including its domain qualification. Fix $s,q$ where the relevant trajectories exist. Both curvessolve the same autonomous ordinary differential equation and have value ${\varphi }_s(q)$ at $t=0$. The uniqueness from the first part therefore giveson their common interval. These are local identities; neither the vector field nor its local flow has been assumed complete.

For the commuting local flows ${\varphi }_t$ and ${\psi }_s$, differentiate ${\varphi }_t({\psi }_s(q))={\psi }_s({\varphi }_t(q))$ with respect to $s$ at zero. The chain rule givesThus the pushforward of a vector field $Y$ by the $X$ flow equals $Y$. Interchanging the two fields gives the analogous identity for $X$ under ${\psi }_s$.

Now let ${\mathcal{D}}_q=\mathrm{span}(X_q,Y_q)$. Pointwise linear independence makes this a rank-two smooth distribution. The identity just proved implies $[X,Y]=0$: in coordinates, differentiating $D_q{\varphi }_t{Y}_q=Y_{{\varphi }_t(q)}$ at $t=0$ gives $DX(q)Y_q=DY(q)X_q$, precisely the vanishing Lie bracket of vector fields. The bracket of two local sections is also in $\mathcal{D}$, sinceand the analogous terms for $[fX,gX]$ and $[fY,gY]$ remain in the same span. Therefore $\mathcal{D}$ is an involutive distribution.

The Frobenius theorem says that a smooth constant-rank involutive distribution has local coordinates $(u^1,\dots ,u^n)$ in which it is spanned by ${\partial }_{u^1},{\partial }_{u^2}$, and has unique maximal connected integral manifolds through its points. These are the leaves of a regular foliation. Let $S$ be the maximal leaf through $p$. The global confinement to an immersed leaf gives the answer: $S$ is a two-dimensional immersed integral manifold and every smooth $\mathcal{D}$-tangent curve starting at $p$ stays in $S$.

For the curve assertion, in each Frobenius chart the transverse coordinate functions $u^3,\dots ,u^n$ have zero derivative along such a curve. Hence its segment in that chart stays in one plaque. On any compact subinterval of the curve's parameter interval, a finite chain of overlapping such segments connects the initial plaque to the last; all belong to the same maximal leaf. Exhausting the parameter interval proves the assertion for every time.

The two commuting local flows also give the leaf parametrization directly near $p$:Its partial derivatives are ${\partial }_{s}F=X_F$ and ${\partial }_{t}F=Y_F$, by the pushforward identity. Its differential has rank two. The constant rank theorem makes a sufficiently small image an embedded local plaque with tangent plane $\mathcal{D}$. This is a concrete local construction of the integral manifold.

There is a global distinction in the word “submanifold”. If it is required to mean an embedded submanifold, the assertion for all times is not valid in general. On the three-dimensional torus ${\mathbb{R}}^3/{\mathbb{Z}}^3$, takeThe fields are independent and commute, and their dense immersed cylinder in a three-dimensional torus through zero isIt is an injectively immersed cylinder $\mathbb{R}\times (\mathbb{R}/\mathbb{Z})$ and is dense in the torus. Indeed, fixing $x\mathrm{mod}1$ and varying $s$ by integers makes $\alpha s\mathrm{mod}1$ dense by an irrational rotation of the circle; $t$ is unrestricted. Every point of this leaf is reached by a tangent curve $r\mapsto (rs,rt,\alpha rs)\mathrm{mod}{\mathbb{Z}}^3$. An embedded surface containing it would, in a submanifold chart near one of its points, be a closed coordinate plane containing a dense subset of the ambient open chart, an impossibility. Thus the global conclusion uses an immersed leaf; the embedded conclusion is local, for curve segments remaining in a suitable chart.

An immersed submanifold of $M$ is a manifold $Y$ equipped with an injective immersion $\psi :Y\to M$. It is an embedded submanifold when $\psi$ is also a homeomorphism onto its image with the subspace topology, equivalently when it is a smooth embedding. For irrational $\alpha$, the irrational winding of the torusis an injective immersion $\mathbb{R}\to T^2$ with dense image, and therefore is not an embedding. If $Y$ is compact, however, an injective immersion is a continuous bijection from a compact space to its image in the Hausdorff manifold $M$; its inverse is continuous. Thus the compact injective immersion is an embedding theorem makes $\psi (Y)$ embedded.

Now let $X\subset M$ be embedded, with $\dim M=m$, $\dim X=m-k$, and $p\in X$. Apply the constant rank theorem to its inclusion. After choosing coordinates and reordering them, there is a neighborhood $U$ of $p$ with coordinates $(x^1,\dots ,x^m)$ for whichThis is the slice chart for an embedded submanifold.

It is false that every embedded submanifold is the inverse image of a regular value of a map to a Euclidean space. If a codimension-$k$ submanifold is $f^{-1}(y)$ for a regular value of $f:M\to {\mathbb{R}}^k$, the differentials of the component functions give a global frame of its conormal bundle, so its normal bundle is trivial. The core circle of the Möbius band is embedded but has the nontrivial Möbius normal line bundle. This is the normal-bundle obstruction to being a regular level set.

Finally, an inductive spinning construction gives the requested torus. Place an embedding $F:N^m\hookrightarrow {\mathbb{R}}^{m+1}$ in the half-space $F_{m+1}>0$ and defineThe positive radius makes this map injective, and its differential is injective in both the $N$ and circle directions; compactness then makes it an embedding. Starting with $S^1\hookrightarrow {\mathbb{R}}^2$ and iterating proves the embedding of the n-dimensional torus in codimension one:

Because the inclusion $\iota :N\hookrightarrow M$ has constant rank $n$, the constant rank theorem gives coordinates $y^1,\dots ,y^n$ on $N$ and $x^1,\dots ,x^m$ on $M$ in whichSince $\iota$ is an embedding, the ambient chart can be shrunk so that it meets no other local sheet of $N$. It then satisfiesand $(x^1,\dots ,x^n)$ restricts to the required chart on $N$. This is a slice chart for an embedded submanifold.