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A local isometry here is a local diffeomorphism whose pullback metric is the source metric. Use the usual convention that a covering map is surjective. Assume the target is connected and the source is nonempty; this is the connected-manifold setting of the intended assertion. For a disconnected target the precise result is a covering of the union of target components met by the map. For example, inclusion $\mathbb{R}\hookrightarrow \mathbb{R}\bigsqcup \mathbb{R}$ is a local isometry from a complete manifold but is not a surjective covering of the whole target.

The correct Hopf-Rinow theorem says that on a connected finite-dimensional Riemannian manifold, completeness for the induced distance is equivalent to geodesic completeness, and to compactness of every closed bounded subset. These conditions imply that every two points are joined by a minimizing geodesic. The last property by itself does not imply completeness: an open Euclidean ball has minimizing segments between every pair but is incomplete.

A local isometry preserves the Levi-Civita connection, by uniqueness of the torsion-free metric connection on each local isometry chart. Hence it preserves affinely parametrized geodesics, andwhenever the source geodesic is defined. This is geodesic preservation by a local isometry.

Suppose $M$ is complete. Given $y\in N$, join $f(x)$ to $y$ by a minimizing target geodesic using target completeness. The source geodesic whose initial velocity is its inverse image under $d{f}_x$ exists for its full parameter interval by source completeness; its image is the target geodesic by uniqueness. Thus $f$ is onto.

Choose a normal ball $U={\exp }_y(B_r(0))$ with ${\exp }_y$ a diffeomorphism on $B_r(0)\subset T_{y}N$. For every $x\in f^{-1}(y)$ put $U_x={\exp }_x(B_r(0))$. Source completeness defines these exponential maps throughout the tangent balls. The displayed exponential identity makes $f:U_x\to U$ a diffeomorphism: injectivity follows from injectivity of the target exponential map, and differentiating the identity shows the source exponential has invertible derivative on the ball, so its image is open.

These sheets are disjoint. If $z$ lay in two, lift the reversed radial target geodesic from $f(z)$ to $y$, starting at $z$. Its initial velocity is uniquely fixed by $d{f}_z$; uniqueness of the source geodesic forces the two sheet centres to be equal. They exhaust $f^{-1}(U)$: for any point over $U$, lift that reversed radial geodesic using source completeness, obtaining a centre over $y$, and then reverse it. Thus $U$ is evenly covered. This proves the complete local isometry is a covering assertion.

Conversely suppose $f$ is a covering. Given any initial tangent vector in $M$, the corresponding target geodesic extends over all $\mathbb{R}$ by target completeness. The path lifting theorem for coverings lifts it over every compact time interval, with uniqueness gluing the lifts to a curve on $\mathbb{R}$. In local covering charts the lift is a geodesic, because the charts are local isometries. It extends the source initial-value geodesic. Therefore $M$ is geodesically complete, and Hopf-Rinow yields metric completeness on each source component. In the stated connected-target setting,

Take the circular cylinderIts first fundamental form is $R^{2}d{\theta }^2+d{z}^2$. The universal covering parametrization ${\mathbb{R}}^2\to S$ is therefore a local isometry from the Euclidean plane, after scaling the first coordinate. By geodesic preservation by a local isometry, every geodesic on the cylinder lifts to a straight line defined for all $t\in \mathbb{R}$. Thus the cylinder is geodesically complete. It is noncompact because $z$ is unbounded, and it is not a plane because one of its principal curvatures is $1/R$.

A regular surface is a minimal surface when its mean curvature vanishes identically, equivalently when its two principal curvatures sum to zero everywhere.

The catenoidis an example. In part (a), take $f(v)=\cosh v$ and $g(v)=v$, so $q=\cosh v$. The formula there givesA plane and a circular cylinder have zero Gaussian curvature, as does a flat cone away from its vertex. Because a local isometry preserves Gaussian curvature, the catenoid is minimal and is not locally isometric to any of those surfaces; this is the catenoid is a minimal surface.

For a chosen unit normal field $N$, the second fundamental form isIn a local parametrization $\varphi$, its coefficients, up to the equivalent simultaneous sign convention, areThe Gaussian curvature is the determinant of the shape operator, henceTheorema Egregium states that $K$ is determined entirely by the first fundamental form. In particular, it is intrinsic and is preserved by every local isometry.

Withthe coordinate tangent vectors satisfyThus the first fundamental form isGeometrically, $S$ is the half of a helicoid with positive radius, winding upwards indefinitely.

Consider the upper half of the catenoid, parametrized as the surface of revolutionIt has the same first fundamental form, so $(u,v)\mapsto Y(u,v)$ defines a local isometry. By the invariance of Gaussian curvature under local isometry, the curvatures agree; directly, the conformal metric above gives

The first fundamental form of an embedded surface $S\subseteq {\mathbb{R}}^3$ is the inner product induced on each tangent plane:For a tangent vector field $V$ along a curve $\alpha$, its surface covariant derivative isthe tangential projection of its ordinary derivative. A curve is a geodesic when

A local isometry preserves the first fundamental form, so its Christoffel symbols and Levi--Civita covariant derivatives satisfyTaking $V={\alpha }^{\prime }$ shows that if $\alpha$ is geodesic, then $\varphi \circ \alpha$ is geodesic.

The converse is false. The dilationmaps every affinely parametrized straight-line geodesic to another such geodesic, butso it does not preserve the first fundamental form. This is the geodesic-preserving homothety that is not a local isometry.

On a compact smooth manifold without boundary of dimension at least two, a residual set of smooth Riemannian metrics consists of nowhere locally homogeneous metrics. Thus such metrics are dense in the smooth topology by the Baire category theorem. In dimension one, arclength coordinates always provide nontrivial local isometries.