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The product of Riemannian manifolds has metricThe tangent summands are orthogonal, and positivity follows because a nonzero product tangent vector has a nonzero component. Its Levi-Civita connection is the product affine connection of the two factor Levi-Civita connections: mixed torsion is zero and metric compatibility follows from independence of the two coordinate sets.

For a Riemannian metric on an ambient manifold and an embedded submanifold, let $\pi :TN{|}_M\to TM$ be orthogonal projection. Project the restriction of a connection to an embedded submanifold to obtain $D_{X}Y=\pi {\nabla }_{X}Y$. Since $\pi Y=Y$, the Leibniz rule and linearity over smooth functions hold, making $D$ an affine connection. If the ambient connection is the Levi-Civita connection, pairing with tangent vectors shows that $D$ is a metric connection; projecting the zero-torsion identity shows it is a torsion-free connection. By uniqueness, $D$ is the induced Levi-Civita connection.

For two projectively equivalent connections that are Levi-Civita connections, contraction of their difference gives $(n+1)V_c={\bar{\Gamma }}^a{}_{ac}-{\Gamma }^a{}_{ac}$. The Jacobi formula gives ${\Gamma }^a{}_{ac}={\partial }_c\log \sqrt{|\det g|}$. Subtraction proves the displayed expression. The two determinant densities transform by the same coordinate Jacobian factor, so their ratio is a scalar and its derivative a covector. The formula is a necessary consequence of projective equivalence, not a test asserting that arbitrary metric tensors have identical geodesics.

A pseudo-Riemannian metric is a smooth nondegenerate symmetric bilinear form on every tangent space, with locally constant signature. Its positive-definite special case is a Riemannian metric. Unlike a positive-definite metric, an indefinite metric admits nonzero null vectors. In either signature its Levi-Civita connection is uniquely determined by torsion-freeness and metric compatibility.

For the Levi-Civita connection, the curvature form of a connection is the endomorphism-valued two-formIt has tensoriality in all three arguments. Its first Bianchi identity follows from torsion-freeness: the cyclic sum is ${\sum }_{\mathrm{cyc}}({\nabla }_X[Y,Z]-{\nabla }_{[Y,Z]}X)={\sum }_{\mathrm{cyc}}[X,[Y,Z]]=0$ by the Jacobi identity.

The symmetric covariant two-tensor defined using the Levi-Civita connection by ${\mathrm{Hess}}_{g}f(X,Y)=X(Yf)-({\nabla }_{X}Y)f$. Its negative metric trace is the positive Laplace-Beltrami operator applied to $f$. Along a geodesic it gives the second derivative of $f$.

For a minimally coupled scalar field with a Levi-Civita connection, metric compatibility and the symmetric Hessian of a scalar field give the displayed off-shell identity. It is a special case of the diffeomorphism Noether identity for a scalar field, and gives stress-energy conservation when the scalar equation is satisfied. No gravitational field equation is needed.

For the Levi-Civita connection, the cyclic covariant derivative of curvature vanishes: ${\nabla }_{[e}{R}^a{}_{|b|cd]}=0$. Contracting this identity gives the contracted Bianchi identity.

For an embedded submanifold $M\subseteq N$ of a Riemannian manifold, the vector-valued second fundamental form isHere $\overline{\nabla }$ is the ambient Levi-Civita connection and the superscript denotes projection onto the normal bundle. For a hypersurface in Euclidean space with unit normal $N$, the scalar form is $II(X,Y)=⟨A(X,Y),N⟩=⟨-dN(X),Y⟩$. In a surface parametrization its coefficients are $e=N\cdot X_{uu}$, $f=N\cdot X_{uv}$, and $g=N\cdot X_{vv}$.

For $E=\frac{1}{2}\int |\dot{\gamma }{|}^2$ and a geodesic base curve, a variation field $V$ satisfiesThe endpoint term vanishes for fixed endpoints and for periodic variations of closed geodesics. The integral is the Riemannian index form. This uses the Levi-Civita connection and the convention $R(X,Y)={\nabla }_X{\nabla }_Y-{\nabla }_Y{\nabla }_X-{\nabla }_{[X,Y]}$.

The spatial covariant derivative projects the spacetime covariant derivative and every free tensor index onto a spatial hypersurface. It is the Levi-Civita connection of the induced spatial metric.

Lift the Levi-Civita connection to the spinor bundle using the spin representation of the Lorentz algebra. Under a local Lorentz transformation, its matrix ${\Omega }_{\mu }=\frac{1}{4}{\omega }_{\mu AB}{\gamma }^{AB}$ obeys ${\Omega }_{\mu }^{\prime }=S{\Omega }_{\mu }{S}^{-1}-({\partial }_{\mu }S)S^{-1}$, so ${\nabla }_{\mu }^{\prime }{\psi }^{\prime }=S{\nabla }_{\mu }\psi$. The Clifford algebra identity $[{\gamma }^C,{\gamma }^{AB}]=2({\eta }^{CA}{\gamma }^B-{\eta }^{CB}{\gamma }^A)$ fixes the coefficient. The tetrad postulate then gives ${\partial }_{\mu }{\gamma }^{\nu }+{\Gamma }_{\mu \rho }^{\nu }{\gamma }^{\rho }+[{\Omega }_{\mu },{\gamma }^{\nu }]=0$, establishing compatibility with curved Clifford multiplication.

The second fundamental form of an embedded submanifold of a Riemannian manifold is symmetric. Its ambient Levi-Civita connection is a torsion-free connection, soThe Lie bracket of vector fields tangent to the submanifold is tangent and therefore has zero normal component. This proof applies to a curved ambient manifold as well as Euclidean space.

For the ambient Levi-Civita connection, a normal field $\eta$, and tangent fields $X,Y$, differentiate $⟨\eta ,Y⟩=0$ using metric compatibility. The tangential part of ${\nabla }_{X}Y$ is orthogonal to $\eta$, giving the displayed identity. It controls how an ambient derivative of a normal vector can develop a tangential component, and is the vector-valued version of the shape operator relation.

A tensor density of weight $w$ transforms like a tensor with an additional factor $|\det (\partial x/\partial x^{\prime }){|}^w$ under $x\mapsto x^{\prime }$. A scalar density of weight one can be integrated against the coordinate volume element to give an invariant integral. On a spatial hypersurface, $\sqrt{h}$ is such a scalar density; hence ${\pi }^{ij}=\sqrt{h}{p}^{ij}$ is a tensor density when $p^{ij}$ is an ordinary tensor. The Levi-Civita connection extends to densities and satisfies $D_i\sqrt{h}=0$.

Declare a global frame of left-invariant vector fields parallel on a semisimple Lie group. This affine connection is flat and preserves a left-invariant metric tensor because its frame components are constant. If $[e_a,e_c]=C_a{}^b{}_c{e}_b$, its torsion tensor is $T_a{}^b{}_c=-C_a{}^b{}_c$. For fixed $c$, the matrix with entries $T_a{}^b{}_c$ is $\mathrm{ad}{e}_c$. Its trace vanishes because a semisimple Lie algebra is perfect and adjoints of brackets are commutators. The trace of the product for $c,d$ is the Killing form $K_{cd}$, proving both contractions. This flat metric connection differs from the curved torsion-free Levi-Civita connection of the Killing metric.

For a Hermitian metric on a complex manifold, the Chern connection on its holomorphic tangent bundle corresponds to a real metric-compatible connection preserving the almost complex structure. Its mixed torsion vanishes, and in holomorphic coordinates its remaining coefficients are ${\Gamma }_{ij}^k=h^{k\bar{l}}{\partial }_i{h}_{j\bar{l}}$. Symmetry in $i,j$ is equivalent to $\partial \omega =0$; its conjugate gives $d\omega =0$. Thus zero torsion is exactly the Kähler metric condition, and then uniqueness identifies this connection with the Levi-Civita connection.

For a family of Levi-Civita connections, the difference of affine connections is a tensor. Dividing by the family parameter and taking the limit shows that its variation is tensorial. Vary the metric compatibility equation and retain the symmetry of the two lower indices. Adding the two cyclic identities and subtracting the third gives the displayed result. In a normal coordinate frame it is the direct derivative of the Christoffel formula; its tensorial form then holds in every frame.