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On a closed connected Riemannian manifold with nonnegative Ricci curvature, harmonic one-forms are parallel under nonnegative Ricci curvature. Evaluation at one point injects their space into the cotangent space. The Hodge decomposition theorem identifies its dimension with the first Betti number, giving $b_1(M)\le \dim M$. For example, a genus-two closed orientable surface times a circle has dimension three and first Betti number five, so no Riemannian metric on that product has nonnegative Ricci curvature.

A component function of a local coordinate chart on a smooth manifold. Its differential $d{x}^i$ belongs to the coordinate cotangent space basis.

For coordinates $x,y$ on a smooth manifold, fibre coefficients of a cotangent space element obey $b_j={\sum }_i{a}_i\partial x^i/\partial y^j$. Thus induced cotangent bundle charts change by $(x,a)\mapsto (y(x),b)$ with smooth, invertible, fibre-linear changes. The canonical one-form on a cotangent bundle satisfies ${\sum }_i{a}_{i}d{x}^i={\sum }_j{b}_{j}d{y}^j$, and differentiating proves invariance of its exterior derivative.

A covector is an element of the dual space, hence a linear functional on a vector space. In finite-dimensional coordinates, it acts as a row multiplied by a coordinate vector column. The row $\left(\begin{array}{cc}2& -1\end{array}\right)$ acts on $\left(\begin{array}{c}3\\ 1\end{array}\right)$ to give five. The terminology emphasizes its role as a scalar-valued measurement and its behavior under a change of basis.

For example, the total derivative of $f(x,y)=x^2+y^2$ at $(1,2)$ sends a small displacement $h$ to the linear change $df(h)=2h_x+4h_y$. This covector describes the first-order response. The gradient $\nabla f=(2,4)$ represents the same rule through the chosen Euclidean inner product. In differential geometry, the cotangent space collects these scalar-valued measurements of tangent vectors.

A Riemannian metric induces a dual inner product on each cotangent space. On decomposable covectors define $⟨{\xi }_1\wedge \cdots \wedge {\xi }_p,{\zeta }_1\wedge \cdots \wedge {\zeta }_p⟩=\det (⟨{\xi }_i,{\zeta }_j⟩)$ and extend bilinearly. Increasing wedges of an orthonormal coframe form an orthonormal basis. This positive-definite inner product is the one used to define the Hodge star operator.

Define the cotangent space $T_p^{\ast }M={\mathrm{Hom}}_{\mathbb{R}}(T_{p}M,\mathbb{R})$ and the cotangent bundle $T^{\ast }M={\coprod }_p{T}_p^{\ast }M$, with projection $(p,\alpha )\mapsto p$. A coordinate chart $x$ gives the dual basis $d{x}^1{|}_p,\dots ,d{x}^n{|}_p$. Write $\alpha ={\sum }_i{\xi }_{i}d{x}^i{|}_p$ and define the induced local trivialization byIf $y=f(x)$ and $\alpha ={\sum }_j{\eta }_{j}d{y}^j$, the chain rule gives $\xi =Df(x{)}^T\eta$. Therefore the cotangent coordinate transition isThe inverse Jacobian matrix is smooth wherever its determinant is nonzero, so this transition and its inverse are smooth. The cocycle follows either from the chain rule or by dualizing the tangent transitions.

Use these product charts to define the topology and smooth atlas. The Hausdorff and second-countability arguments are the same as for the tangent bundle: separate distinct fibres using the base, separate distinct covectors in one product chart, and use a countable coordinate cover. The fibre transitions are smooth linear isomorphisms, so the projection is a smooth vector bundle of rank $n$. Using every compatible base coordinate chart shows that this structure is natural and independent of chart choices.

A tangent vector at $p$ is a derivation at a point: a real-linear map $v:C_p^{\infty }(M)\to \mathbb{R}$ on germs of smooth functions satisfyingAddition and scalar multiplication preserve this identity, defining the tangent space $T_{p}M$ as a vector space. A derivation annihilates constants. In a manifold chart $x=(x^1,\dots ,x^n)$ centered near $p$, the local factorization $f-f(p)={\sum }_i(x^i-x^i(p))f_i$, with $f_i(p)={\partial }_{i}f(p)$, gives $v(f)={\sum }_{i}v(x^i){\partial }_{i}f(p)$. The factorization follows by integrating the first derivatives along a straight segment in a sufficiently small coordinate ball. ThereforeConversely these coordinate derivatives satisfy the derivation identity, so they really give a basis rather than merely a spanning family.

The cotangent space is the dual vector space $T_p^{\ast }M=(T_{p}M{)}^{\ast }$. Its basis $d{x}^i{|}_p$ is characterized by $d{x}^i({\partial }_j)={\delta }_j^i$. If $\alpha =a_{i}d{x}^i=b_{j}d{y}^j$, the chain rule gives the cotangent coordinate transitionThe cotangent bundle is the disjoint union $T^{\ast }M={\coprod }_{p\in M}{T}_p^{\ast }M$, with projection $\pi (p,\alpha )=p$. For each base manifold chart $(U,x)$, defineIts inverse sends $(z,a)$ to $(x^{-1}(z),a_{i}d{x}^i{|}_{x^{-1}(z)})$. On overlaps the transition is $(x,a)\mapsto (y(x),b)$, with the displayed fibre-linear transformation. Its coefficients and inverse are smooth, so these maps give a smooth atlas in dimension $2n$. Give the total space the topology obtained by transporting the product topology through these charts. Different base points are separated by disjoint base neighborhoods; distinct points over the same base point are separated within one bundle chart. A countable base smooth atlas and countable product bases give second countability. Thus the total space is a Hausdorff, second-countable smooth manifold. The same charts are vector bundle trivializations, since $\pi$ is product projection and their fibre changes are invertible linear maps.

The intrinsic canonical one-form on a cotangent bundle isIn the bundle chart it is $\lambda ={\sum }_i{a}_{i}d{x}^i$. This definition is coordinate independent, hence its exterior derivative is the globally defined smooth differential two-formThis sign follows the fibre-first order in this problem; the equally common position-first symplectic form is $-d\lambda$. The volume formnever vanishes. A smooth manifold is orientable exactly when it admits a nowhere-zero top-degree form; its positive ordered bases determine a consistent orientation. Consequently $T^{\ast }M$ is an orientable smooth manifold, even when $M$ is not. This is cotangent bundle orientation. In dimension zero the same conclusion uses the nowhere-zero zero-form $1$.