An almost complex structure on a smooth manifold is a smooth bundle endomorphism satisfying . On the complexified tangent bundle, has the eigenbundle decomposition
with eigenvalues and . A differential form of type (p, q) is a section of . The operators and are the type- and type- components of the exterior derivative.
We prove the three stated conditions are equivalent. If have type and has type , the formula for the exterior derivative gives
Thus closure of under the Lie bracket is equivalent to the vanishing of the component of for every -form. Complex conjugation of differential-form type gives the corresponding vanishing of the component on -forms. Since every complex one-form is a sum of these two types, this is precisely
This proves (i)(ii).
Under (ii), the component of is , proving (iii). Conversely, for of type ,
If this vanishes for every smooth complex-valued , then , so (iii) implies (i). These conditions define an integrable almost complex structure.
For a complex manifold, a holomorphic chart defines and . The derivative of a holomorphic coordinate change is complex linear, hence commutes with multiplication by ; the definitions therefore glue and are independent of coordinates. Locally is spanned by the commuting fields , so it is closed under brackets and is integrable. This is the almost complex structure induced by a complex atlas.
We next prove the local Dolbeault-Poincaré lemma. Write a -closed -form on a slightly larger polydisc as
where neither nor contains . Apply the supplied one-variable Cauchy-Green operator coefficientwise to , obtaining with . Then contains no , and says that its coefficients are holomorphic in and -closed in the first variables. Induction on , with the one-variable formula as the base case, makes this remainder -exact. Hence every -closed -form with is -exact on each bounded polydisc.
Finally, translation by leaves unchanged, so this form descends to . It is in fact exact on this noncompact complex cylinder, because the invariant function descends and satisfies
Let be a complex manifold chart, with . The almost complex structure induced by a complex atlas is
Thus . On an overlap, the derivative of a holomorphic map is complex linear and hence commutes with multiplication by . The two coordinate definitions of therefore agree, so is globally well-defined.
The complexified cotangent bundle splits into the - and -eigenspaces of , locally spanned by and . A differential form of type (p, q) is a sum
Splitting the exterior derivative according to type defines
Complex conjugation sends to and conjugates the coefficient derivatives. Term by term this gives the complex conjugation of differential-form type identity
Let act on a -form by
It acts on a -form by . Therefore multiplies the component by and the component by , proving the d c operator formula
A holomorphic vector field is a holomorphic section of . On the affine chart , put . The projection is
Direct differentiation gives
If is linear and homogeneous, the pushed-forward coefficients are consequently when , and when . They are holomorphic on .
More intrinsically, is a linear vector field on . Its flow preserves complex lines and induces the projective transformations
Differentiating gives a globally defined projectivization of a linear vector field, whose expression on is the field just computed. This proves extension across the other affine charts.
Finally choose distinct complex numbers and the diagonal field
Its projectivization vanishes at precisely when is proportional to , so is an eigenline. The distinct eigenvalues leave exactly the coordinate points. Hence has a holomorphic vector field with finitely many zeroes.
Real (1, 1)-form 2026-09-28
A differential form of type (p, q) of type is real when . Locally this is equivalent to
for a Hermitian matrix .