Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2012 iii Paper 55 3 b Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-07
Work over a coordinate neighborhood with coordinates , and choose a basis of the Lie algebra, with . Put . For each let be its right-invariant vector field on the fiber group. In matrix notation , andThis minus sign is the right-invariant vector fields realize the opposite Lie algebra rule. It is essential here. Define the coordinate horizontal lifts of a principal connection byTheir projections are , so they are linearly independent and there are exactly of them. Also , whenceThey therefore span the horizontal distribution of a principal connection on this trivialization.
The coefficients depend only on the base variables, so taking Lie brackets giveswhere and . Since the right-invariant vector fields form a basis on each fiber, . This is the local coordinate version of vanishing curvature of a principal connection and, by the Frobenius theorem, integrability of the horizontal distribution.
The coordinate qualification is necessary: horizontal lifts of arbitrary noncommuting base fields need not commute even for a flat principal connection. Nor does flatness guarantee a globally defined coordinate frame or a global horizontal section; holonomy of a connection can obstruct the latter. If the requested frame were read globally, the trivial flat bundle would already be a counterexample: restricting a global horizontal frame to the identity-fiber section would trivialize , contrary to the Hairy ball theorem. The construction on each coordinate trivialization supplies the intended result without that global claim.